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THE PETER NEWELL 
MOTHER GOOSE 





U:i;?ARY C,f 
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COPY a. 


Copyright, 1905 

BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 


Published October, IQOJ 


Dedicated in all tenderness of memory 
to my Mother^ 

whose story of Queerland Doings^ 
told to two little girls^ suggested the pages 
that follow 






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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER , PAGE 

I. How It Happened 1 

II. About Derby and the Princess Felice ... 13 

III. About Gooseland 23 

IV. About How Derby Ran Away 34 

V. About Dame Trot 46 

VI. About the Pipers 58 

VII. About the Tea Party and How the Pipers 

Came Home 70 

VIII. About Wee Willie Winkie 83 

IX. About Nancy Etticoat and the Garden of 

Pumpkins 96 

X. About the Horner Restaurant 109 

XI. About a Number of Queer People .... 123 

XII. About the Doings at Banbury Cross . . . 136 

XIII. About Simon the Clown 149 

XIV. About Little Bo Peep ..... .... 162 

XV. About the Finding of the Tails 176 

XVI. About a Night’s Lodging 189 

XVII. About Some Ships 201 

XVIII. About Mother Goose 214 

XIX. About a Journey in the Air 227 

XX. About the Man in the Moon 240 

XXL About the Christmas Country, and How the 

Princess Came 253 


V 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGB 


“Come in; What Is It, My Children?” .... 5 v/ 

Presently They Saw the Gray Mole Coming Slowly 

Back Again 9 


Then She Took Debby’s Hand, and They Ran up the 
Deep, Green Wood that Covered the Enchanted 
Mountain 19 

Such a Queer, Queer Place as They Had Stopped at. 

Though 27 '^ 

Then the King Came Down from His Throne and 

Danced with the Beautiful Queen of Hearts . 35 

Before Long They Came to the Gooseland Market 55 

“He Used His Pipe and She Used Her Legs” ... 61 ^ 

Dame Trot Poured Tea Until It Seemed as if There 


Could be None Left 75 - 

Then He Put in His Eyes, Which Had Been Sticking 

to Two Brambles 87 

vii 


Vlll 


List of Illustrations 


PAGE 

They All Went Galloping Down the Road . . . 101 

He Trundled Her off Gaily Through the Crowd 115 

“A Spider, A Spider! Oh, Oh, Oh!” 131 

She Tied Her Cock Horse to the Fence .... 143 

*‘Do You Think You Are Ever Going to Catch a 


Whale That Way? ” 157, 

Little Boy Blue, Come Blow Your Horn!” . . 171 ( 

When They Came Closer, They Saw That It Was 

THE Same Old Black Sheep 183 1 

‘*Oh, It’s a Ship,” She Cried 197- 


There, in the Open Sea, Was a Little Red Washtub 207 / 

A Large Yellow Gander Flew Down to the Ground 221 

Is THE New Broom as Skittish as Ever?” Asked the 
Treetop 231 y 

She Blew as Hard as She Could in the Large Yellow 

Mouth 247 J 


THE PETER NEWELL 
MOTHER GOOSE 



THE PETER NEWELL 
MOTHER GOOSE 


CHAPTER I 

HOW IT HAPPENED 

O NCE upon a time, dear Heart, there was 
a wonderful Enchanted Mountain all 
covered over with a deep, green wood. And 
the green wood was full of pimpernel and 
heartsease and honeysuckle and bluebell and 
wild thyme and all sweet smelling things. 

The little brown hares frisked there, and the 
little red foxes chased their tails there, and 
the little striped chipmunks chattered away 
there all day long, with no one to frighten or 
trouble them in the least, because it was an 
Enchanted Mountain. 

Each rock was the home of a pixie, and 
each pebble was a goblin’s hearthstone. The 
heaps of dry pine needles were small thatched 
cottages where the elves lived, and under each 


2 How It Happened 

green leaf of each tree there hung a beautiful 
dryad. 

Now, it was all because of the dryads that 
it happened. 

I could never tell you how a dryad looks, 
for I never saw one, and you will never see 
one either, and only the thrushes who sing at 
the tops of the trees know. But I think the 
dryads are long and slender and graceful, 
and, oh, they are very haughty and proud and 
full of disdain. From morning till night 
they swing and sway there under the leaves in 
the green wood and they shine in the sunlight 
like the largest emerald that ever was. 

Deep down in the ground, under the rocks 
and roots of the Enchanted Mountain, was a 
funny, dear, old place called Gooseland. No> 
body from the Enchanted Mountain had ever 
been down to Gooseland. It was an exceeding 
long journey, and there were no stairs. No- 
body would have known there was such a 
place, except for the queer noises that came 
from the Gooselanders up through the ground. 

From morning till night, they made merry. 


3 


How It Happened 

They cackled and crowed and grunted and 
squealed and stamped their feet and laughed 
at their own jokes until the very trees on the 
Enchanted Mountain quivered, and the proud 
dryads were so shaken up that they quite lost 
their dignity. At last, they could stand the 
noise no longer, and they made up their minds 
that the Gooselanders’ merry-making must 
stop. They would consult the old Wood 
Witch about it. 

The old Wood Witch lived within a magic 
hedge of mushrooms at the tip-top of the En- 
chanted Mountain. She was a very wise old 
witch, indeed. She was as old as the hills, 
to start with. She wore always a high, red 
hat and a long red mantle, and a black cat 
with glary, red eyes sat always on her shoul- 
der. The old Wood Witch was continually 
stirring a black cauldron in which were brew- 
ing savoury potions of lavender and rosemary 
and other magic herbs. She knew nearly 
everything that ever was from the beginning 
of the mountains until now, and whatever 
thing she was not quite sure of, the black cat 


4 How It Happened 

with the glary, red eyes could whisper in her 
ear — so, together, they ruled the Enchanted 
Mountain. 

The dryads came down from the trees one 
day and made their way, carefully, over the 
slippery ground and up the steep sides of the 
rocks. They were not used to walking. They 
only knew how to sway and swing up among 
the green leaves, and they were obliged to 
carry so many gifts to the old Wood Witch 
that it was a most trying journey. They had 
gold and silver spangles and jewels of dew- 
drops and hoar-frost and bags of rubies and 
topazes, which they had bought from .the 
delving gnomes. Oh, it was a hard journey, 
but, at last, the dryads reached the tip-top of 
the Enchanted Mountain, and knocked at the 
old Wood Witch’s magic mushroom gate. 

The old Wood Witch was very busy at her 
cauldron, measuring and counting. 

“ Ten drops of wild honey, three drops of 
rosemary, one gill of essence of peppermint.” 

She did not seem to see them or hear them 
at first, and the fur of the black cat sent out 



Come in; What is it^ My Children? 







How It Happened 7 

sparks of fire that frightened the dryads very 
much, but, finally, she said: 

Come in; what is it, my children?” 

The tired dryads threw their presents at the 
feet of the old Wood Witch, and then they all 
began talking at once — 

“Oh, the shocking Gooselanders! Oh, the 
terrible Gooselanders I They laugh so much 
and make merry all day long. We are not 
able to sleep, dear Wood Witch; we are not 
able to stick to the trees because they make the 
earth tremble so with their unseemly mirth. 
What are we to do about it, dear Wood 
Witch?” 

The old Wood Witch stroked the black cat 
a few times. Then, she stirred the potion in 
the black cauldron a few times, and then she 
took from the pocket in her red mantle a 
small, white parcel tied fast with a bit of a 
spider’s web, and she said: 

“ This is a sleeping powder. If you can find 
the little Princess Felice and give her this 
powder, she will become so tiny you can hide 
her in a walnut shell. Once you have her in- 


8 How It Happened 

side, pouf, there is the end of the Princess 
Felice, for nothing can break her enchant- 
ment but an earth-child’s tear. When the lit- 
tle Princess is gone, all Gooseland will be sad. 
You will hear no more laughing.” 

Then the old Wood Witch began counting 
again as if nothing had happened: 

^‘Ten drops of rosemary, one gill of essence 
of peppermint.” 

And the dryads went home with the 
precious powder. 

It was a hairy, gray mole that the dryads 
sent down to Gooseland. A mole can dig and 
burrow and tunnel, and you are never able to 
tell how far he goes nor see the strange things 
that he sees. With the magic powder held fast 
in one paw, the gray mole dug and dug and 
dug, under the fern roots, past the snails, un- 
der the tree stumps, farther than the fingers of 
the oak can reach or the rocks have their 
beginning — and, then, he came to Gooseland. 

From their home among the green leaves, 
the dryads heard him scratch, scratch, 
scratching along his way. Then they heard 



Presently They Saw the Gray Mole Coming 
Slowly Back Again 



How It Happened 1 1 

merry sounds of music and singing from 
Gooseland: 

“ Old King Cole was a merry old soul, 

And a merry old soul was he. 

He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl 
And he called for his fiddlers, three.” 

“ Little King Brogan has built a fine hall ! 

Pie crust and pastry crust. 

That was the wall. 

The windows were made of black currants and white 
And slated with pancakes, 

You ne’er saw the like. 

“ Little King Brogan ” 

And then, very suddenly, all the music and 
singing ceased and no sound came from 
Gooseland. 

The dryads peered and craned their heads 
in wonder. The quiet seemed too good to be 
true. Presently they saw the gray mole com- 
ing slowly back again. The little package 
tied with the bit of spider’s web was gone, 
and, in its place, he held a wrinkled, brown 
walnut in his paws. 

It had all happened as the old Wood Witch 


12 How It Happened 

had said it would. However the mole con- 
trived it, they never knew, and they did not 
care. It was enough to be sure that the little 
Princess Felice was shut tight in an old wal- 
nut shell far away from Gooseland. The 
wind tossed the walnut this way and that 
among the mosses and berries and to and fro 
until, one day, it rolled over the edge of a rock 
and far, far away. It never stopped, but went 
rolling over and over and down, down, and 
rested at last in a cranny at the foot of the 
Enchanted Mountain. 


CHAPTER II 

ABOUT DEBBY AND THE PRINCESS FELICE 

TN a little stone cottage at the foot of the 
Enchanted Mountain, lived Debby and 
Grandmother dear. All about the cottage 
was an orchard of plum trees and apple trees 
and peach trees, and in front was a sweet gar- 
den of tiger lilies and hollihocks and larkspur 
with a low stone wall to shut it in. 

Grandmother was as old and wrinkled as a 
last fall’s oak leaf, but her eyes were bright 
and twinkly. Debby was just a real, live, rosy 
little girl with gingham aprons and stubby 
shoes and sunbonnets and two braids of yellow 
hair that were always losing their ribbons 
and flying out behind like two long sticks of 
yellow taffy. 

Ever since she was a little baby, Debby had 
lived in the stone cottage with Grandmother, 
and they loved each other very much indeed. 

13 


14 Debby and the Princess Felice 

Each morning they had their breakfast at a 
little round table that was set by a window 
looking out on the Enchanted Mountain. Such 
a charming breakfast! Rolls as tiny as your 
finger, and jam, and a high glass dish of red 
apples, and milk from the good old cow. 

When breakfast was over, Debby dried 
the dishes while Grandmother dear washed 
them, the shiny flowing blue plates, the tiny 
cups and saucers, and the silver spoons. Then 
Debby stood in her little red chair and hung 
up the cups and placed the plates in the plate- 
rack, every one. When the dishes were fin- 
ished, Debby took her little green watering 
pot and went up and down the garden walk, 
watering the tiger lilies and the hollihocks and 
the larkspur. 

When the sun was too hot for her to run 
about in the garden, Debby and Grandmother 
sat by the little round table, Grandmother in 
her high backed rocking chair, and Debby on 
a worsted stool at her feet, and they sewed red 
and green and yellow patchwork. Debby’s 
needle squeaked slowly in and out, and the 


Debby and the Princess Felice 15 

thread knotted most terribly, but Grand- 
mother was very, patient about fixing it. As 
they sewed, they talked together: 

‘‘ It is a very high mountain, Grandmother 
dear,” Debby would say; “and did you say 
that there might be fairies in those woods?” 

“ Oh, yes,” Grandmother would say, “ and 
goblins.” 

“ Will you tell me about them again. 
Grandmother dear?” Debby would say, and 
the patchwork square would tumble down to 
the floor as Debby snuggled close to Grand- 
mother’s knee, all ready for a story. 

“They haven’t been seen for years and 
years,” Grandmother would say, “ but the gob- 
lins came to our great-grandfather’s farm one 
night, and they soured the cream and be- 
witched the cows so they kicked over the milk- 
ing pails and jumped the barnyard gate. They 
tangled the maid’s knitting, and left tracks of 
their little feet all over the sand on the kitchen 
floor. And, once, there was a little girl who 
was lonely, and the fairies in the deep green 
wood heard about her, and they came down 


1 6 Debby and the Princess Felice 

the mountain side and played with her all day 
long, though nobody else could see them.” 

“ Oh! ” Debby would say with shining eyes, 
“a real live fairy to play with!” and Grand- 
mother would breathe just a tiny sigh to think 
that she was not a little girl to play with 
Debby. 

One sweet summer afternoon Debby went 
out in the garden. Debby loved the garden 
because it was so long and quite close to the 
Enchanted Mountain. You could sit on the 
stone wall and look away off into the deep, 
green wood and fancy such delightful things. 
Debby perched herself on the wall, swinging 
her pink sunbonnet over her arm, and saying 
aloud to herself, 

“ Oh, I wish I had a walnut. I wish I were 
a squirrel with a whole pile hidden away.” 

Now it was not time for walnuts until fall, 
and Debby knew that very well. 

There was a white dandelion standing in 
the grass, and Debby jumped off the wall and 
picked it. She began to puff out her rosy little 
cheeks and blow as hard as ever she could. 


Debby and the Princess Felice 17 

“ One, two, three,” she counted, the seeds 
are all gone. I shall have my wish! Oh, I 
wish for a nut to eat and a little girl to play 
with.” 

Just then, Debby looked down to the 
ground. There in a cranny, where the wind 
had dropped it when he was tired of 
playing with it, lay a wrinkled, brown 
walnut. 

“ Oh, the dear, last year’s nut! ” cried Debby, 
picking it up, and turning it over and over 
in her fingers. “ Shall I crack it? Yes, I 
will,” and she laid it down on a smooth, flat 
stone and stamped on the walnut with her 
little heel 

‘^Oh, dear, I am killed! My head, my 
head ! No, it isn’t my head at all but my back. 
No, it isn’t my back, but my arms and my legs 
and my nose!” 

Debby .looked about her in a fright. One 
of the bantam hens was pecking away in the 
grass, but she couldn’t talk. The yellow kitten 
was playing with a leaf near by, but he cer- 
tainly couldn’t say anything. Then Debby 


1 8 Debby and the Princess Felice 

looked down at the ground at her feet, and 
the bits of nutshell began to move. First, 
there came out one wee foot and then another, 
an arm, and a head, until there stood before 
Debby the dearest little creature she had ever 
seen. 

It was as tall as a young humble bee. Its 
dress was of rose petals all covered with the 
gossamer wings of moths and butterflies. Its 
hair was the colour of sunlight, and it wore a 
tiny crown that glimmered and shone like a 
new rainbow. 

It shook first one foot, and then the other. 
It put its hands to its little head and moved it 
slowly this way, and that. Then it brushed 
the dust from its petticoats, sat down on a bit 
of nutshell, and said: 

“Well, I’m out of that horrid place, and I 
shan’t go in again soon. Did you know, little 
girl, that you hit that house of mine a terrible 
blow? ” 

Debby was too much surprised to speak, and 
the little creature went on, 

“ Do you know who lam? I don’t. I wish 



Then She Took Derby’s Hand, and They Ran 
UP the Deep Green Wood that Covered 
THE Enchanted Mountain 





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Debby and the Princess Felice 21 

I did. I am so puzzled about it all. I may 
be a fly or a gnat. If I keep on growing 
smaller ” 

“ I thought people grew bigger,” said 
Debby. 

“So did I,” said the little creature, “but 
they don’t. If I keep on growing smaller, I 
shall soon be nobody.” 

“Could anybody be nobody?” asked 
Debby. 

“ I am sure I can’t tell you,” said the little 
creature. “ I used to be the little Princess 
Felice, and my father was old King Cole who 
rules over Gooseland down under the pine 
roots, but somebody, I don’t know who, shut 
me up in this nut while I was fast asleep. 
Maybe, I’m only a bug or some sort of a 
worm, now.” 

Then, the little creature took out a pocket 
handkerchief about as large as half of a small 
dew drop, and just cried and cried. 

“ Poor little thing,” said Debby, kneeling 
down on the ground, “you’re not a bug or a 
worm at all, dear, but the tiniest, sweetest, 


22 Debby and the Princess Felice 

little girl I ever saw. Don’t cry; I am so sorry 
for you.” 

Then Debby began to cry, too, to see any- 
one in such distress, and a big, warm tear 
splashed from her eyes down on the little 
creature’s head. 

“ Oh,” cried the little thing joyfully, “ I 
feel as if I were getting tall!” 

It was quite true. The tear from a little 
earth-child’s eyes had broken the enchant- 
ment. There was a sound like the rustling of 
leaves in the autumn wind, a breath of roses 
and violets, a ripple of laughter, and two 
warm arms hugged tight about Debby’s neck. 

“Oh, I’m so much obliged, little girl!” — 
and there stood the little Princess Felice, her 
own sweet self again. 

“ Come,” she cried to Debby, “ we must go 
home! ” 

Then she took Debby’s hand, and they ran 
through the gate and up the deep green wood 
that covered the Enchanted Mountain. 


CHAPTER III 


ABOUT GOOSELAND 

W HAT will Grandmother dear say?” 

cried Debby, as the two little girls hur- 
ried up the mountain side. 

“ Oh, she won’t mind,” said the Princess. 
The days are so long, and you will be back 
by tea time.” 

On and on they ran, so fast that the little 
brown hare’s whiskers stood straight in a won- 
der, and the goblins who lived on the En- 
chanted Mountain came out on their little 
door sills to watch. On and on, ran the chil- 
dren until they came to an old pine stump in 
the deep green wood. 

The Princess Felice rapped three times on 
the rough bark, and the pine stump opened 
wide as if by magic. In they went, and it shut 
tight again with a bang. It was all quite dark 
inside for a minute and then, in the distance, 

they saw a tiny glint of light, very faint at 
23 


24 About Gooseland 

first, like the glow of a firefly, but growing 
larger all the time. As it came nearer, they 
saw that it was the shining of a very small 
lantern carried by a very small person. 

He was dressed in a plaid coat and a flow- 
ered waist-coat, a pair of red and green striped 
trousers, and a silk opera hat. He wore one 
patent leather shoe, and one rubber boot. He 
carried a rain coat on one arm, and he held a 
pink tulle sunshade over his head. He walked 
sideways and round and round, swinging the 
lantern, and big tears were rolling down his 
cheeks. 

“Why, Peter,” cried the little Princess, 
running up to him, “ I am so glad to see you! 
What are you doing so far away from home? ” 

The little man began to bow backwards in- 
stead of forwards until his head nearly touched 
his coat tails. 

“Oh, your Highness, your Highness,” he 
said, “ I started for the market this morning 
early to buy me a little salad. But I dressed 
me wrong, and the roads went cross lots when 
I went straight, and I went up instead of down. 


About Gooseland 


25 


It’s always the way with me, your Highness,” 
and the little man’s tears fell faster. 

“ There, there, never mind, Peter,” said the 
Princess, patting him as if he were a baby. 
“We want some one to start the elevator; 
come, will you?” 

Then she whispered to Debby: 

“ Peter White could ne’er go right. 

Would you know the reason why? 

He follows his nose where ever he goes, 

And that goes all awry.” 

Debby and the Princess seated themselves 
upon a cushion of moss, and Peter hung his 
lantern, his rain coat, and his sunshade on a 
bit of lichen. Then he dried his eyes and 
began to pull carefully at the pine roots that 
hung all about. The moss and the earth be- 
gan to move, slowly, at first, and then faster. 

“ Oh, Debby,” cried the little Princess, “we 
shall be home quite soon, now!” 

Down, down, they went. Once, the elevator 
stopped with a bump, and they heard, grunt, 
squeak, squeal, 


26 


About Gooseland 


“ Hold on, stop, I tell you. Look out up 
above there.” 

Peter held his lantern high and peered out 
through the pine roots. 

“ It’s only Tommy Tittlemouse’s pig, your 
Highness,” he said. “ Likely, Tommy’s off 
catching fishes, same as he always is, in other 
men’s ditches, and the pig got loose.” 

Then the squeaking sounded smothered and 
far away, and Peter began pulling again and 
singing to himself: 

“ Dickery dickery dare, 

The pig flew up in the air, 

The man in brown soon brought him down, 
Dickery dickery dare.” 


After a long while, the elevator stood still. 
Debby and the Princess took Peter by the 
hands and helped him to get out. Such a 
queer, queer place as they had stopped at, 
though! The ground, as far as they could 
see, was covered with heaps of raisins and cur- 
rants and bits of pie crust. There were piles 
of griddle cakes as high as a child could see. 



Such a Queer, Queer Place as They had Stopped 


AT, Though 












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About Gooseland 29 

and the half finished framework of a house 
stood in the midst. 

“ It’s just like you, Peter,” cried the little 
Princess, “you have come to the wrong place; 
but don’t cry,” she added, as Peter pulled a 
pillow slip instead of a pocket handkerchief 
out of his pocket and began wiping his eyes, 
“we can find our way if you can get home, 
Peter.” 

“ Oh, yes, your Highness,” said Peter, “ I 
live east from here, so I’ll just go west, your 
Highness.” 

The Princess took Debby’s hand and they 
started on again, Peter standing behind and 
bowing backwards as long as they could see 
him. 

It was hard to tell which way to go and 
harder still to walk. First, Debby and the 
Princess were obliged to wade through a pud- 
dle of mince meat, and then they stumbled 
over a heap of caraway cookies and ginger 
snaps. They grew quite tired and discour- 
aged, but at last they came upon a white mouse 
sitting on an apple tart, his paws folded, and 


30 


About Gooseland 


his eyes winking up and down. He was so 
white and cunning that Debby found herself 
saying: 

“ Oh, what a sweet little white mouse, 

Oh, what a dear little white mouse. 

With his eyes of pink 
Going winkity wink. 

Oh, what a sweet little white mouse ! ” 

At this, the mouse opened his eyes wide, 
stood up on the edge of the apple tart, and 
began curtsying. 

“Oh,” cried the little Princess, “which is 
the way to King Cole’s palace and what is 
this place?” 

“This is King Brogan’s land. Miss,” said 
the mouse in a high, squeaky voice. “ I’m the 
contractor for the new palace he’s building. 
We quit work because all Gooseland’s in 
mourning. You know the Princess Felice has 
been kidnapped. This is plaster,” pointing 
to a pool of mince meat, “ these,” pointing to 
some pancakes, “ are shingles. King Cole 
lives yonder.” 

Then the white mouse sat down and folded 


About Gooseland 31 

his paws and began winking the same as be- 
fore. 

Debby and the Princess started on in the 
direction the mouse had pointed. Before long, 
they came to a number of crooked little streets 
all paved with marbles and having Noah’s 
Ark houses set on either side. After they had 
left the streets behind, there loomed up before 
them a big, gabled palace with high, rock 
candy walls all about. 

Oh, Debby, look,” cried the little Princess, 
“ we are home, home ! ” 

She rang the bell at the postern gate. After 
a great deal of shuffling and rattling of keys, 
some one called out in a gruff voice, “Who’s 
there? ” 

“ Oh, dear, this can’t be the right place after 
all,” said the Princess. “ I never in all my 
life heard any one speak like that in Goose- 
land.’’ 

But she called out bravely, “ Open the gate 
at once! It is only I, the little Princess Felice. 
Let me in.” 

In a second, the gate flew open. The guard 


32 


About Gooseland 


ran to the castle door, burst it open, and dashed 
into the throne room. 

“The Princess is back, your Majesty,” he 
cried, “ the Princess is back! ” 

Then there arose such a clatter as Debby 
had never heard before. All Gooseland be- 
gan to laugh. The whole castle, from King 
Cole down to the tiniest scullery maid, began 
to shout and roar and giggle and chuckle, un- 
til the sober dryads on the Enchanted Moun- 
tain shook their heads and said, “What has 
happened?” 

Such a funny medley of voices as Debby 
listened to! 

“ Your Majesty, may the fiddlers be released 
from prison? ” 

“Where are they?” 

“In the rat trap, your Majesty.” 

“ Bring them here at once.” Then a tuning 
of fiddles and some one called out: 

“ Every fiddler he had a fine fiddle, 

And a very fine fiddle had he. 

Oh, there’s none so rare as can compare 
With Old King Cole and his fiddlers three.” 


About Gooseland 33 

“Your Majesty, may the court jester re- 
turn?” 

“Where is he, sirrah?” 

“ In the clothes press, your Majesty. You 
ordered him there when he choked in trying 
to swallow one of your Majesty’s jokes.” 

“ Bring him here at once, and give him a 
goblet of curds and whey.” 

Then there was a merry jingle of bells and 
more jolly “ ha-ha’s.” 

Debby never knew just how she reached the 
throne room, but there she was. The beauti- 
ful Queen of Hearts was kissing her, and Old 
King Cole was laughing until his crown came 
tumbling ofif because she had brought him 
back his dear little Princess again. The fid- 
dlers were scraping away, every one began to 
dance, and the Princess jumped up and down, 
shouting to Debby: 

“ Oh, we’re home, Debby, home to dear old 
Gooseland.” 


CHAPTER IV 


ABOUT HOW DERBY RAN AWAY 

S O they danced and danced in King Cole’s 
great throne room. It seemed to Debby 
as if she had always lived there, it was so 
funny and delightful. First, she raced up 
and down with the dear little Princess, who 
could not stay quiet a minute, she was so glad 
to be home. Then Debby joined hands with 
the queer little court jester and they whirled 
around and around, while the fiddlers played 
and danced at the same time, and Old King 
Cole shouted to Debby: 

“ Little Miss, little Miss, blessings light upon thee, 

If I had half a crown a day. 

I’d spend it all upon thee.” 

Then the King came down from his throne 
and danced with the beautiful Queen of 
Hearts, singing to her all the time: 

34 



Then the King Came Down from His Throne 
AND Danced with the Beautiful Queen 
OF Hearts 



How Debby Ran Away 37 

Lavender blue, and rosemary green, 

I am the King and you are the Queen. 

Call up my maids at four o’clock. 

Some to the wheel, and some to the rock, 

Some to make hay, and some to shear corn ; 

And you and I will keep ourselves warm.” 

When they could dance no longer, the three 
fiddlers sat them down at the foot of the 
throne. The beautiful Queen of Hearts took 
the Princess Felice in her lap, and Old King 
Cole called Debby to him, saying: 

Our thanks to you, little earth-child, for 
the return of our Princess who was kidnapped 
by the dryads. In the Gooseland records they 
shall be written.” 

Then he took from under his cloak a long, 
gold chain, on the end of which hung a tiny 
gold goose. He put the chain about Debby’s 
neck and said: 

“This is a charm. No earth-child has been 
permitted before to enter our borders, but with 
this charm you will be safe. Wherever you go 
and whatever you do, nothing can harm you.” 

It was a long speech for Old King Cole to 


38 How Debby Ran Away 

make. Directly he had finished, there was a 
loud clapping of hands and all the courtiers 
began to laugh so lustily that Debby put her 
fingers in her ears. 

Suddenly, there was a loud call, 

“The court tailor, the court tailor at once! 
The court is splitting its sides. The court 
tailor and skin patches!” 

In the midst of the confusion, the Princess 
slipped her hand in Debby’s. 

“ Come,” she said, “ come and see my doll, 
dear.” 

So Debby and the Princess went out of the 
throne room, where everybody was too busy 
to watch them, through the great rock candy 
halls, and up the long stairways, until they 
came to the Princess’ own nursery room. 

“Wait a minute,” she said, “we’ll listen at 
the keyhole. Maybe she is asleep.” 

They stopped outside the door and put their 
ears to the keyhole, and they heard a wee 
voice saying, 

“Oh dear, oh dear, where is my little 
Mama, my own dear Mama?” 


How Debby Ran Away 39 

The Princess Felice threw open the door 
and ran into the nursery room. What do you 
think Debby saw? 

In the centre of the room was the largest 
doll house she had ever seen. There was a 
front door with an electric bell, and a tiny 
telephone hung in the hall. There was a 
drawing room done in pink and gold. There 
was a kitchen with a real stove and little 
brooms and tiny pots and kettles and sauce- 
pans and skillets all shining and hung in a row. 
There was a bedroom with a wee curtained 
bed and a dressing table covered with dollie’s 
brushes and powder puffs and ribbons and 
jewelry. There were presses full of dolls’ 
trunks, and all kinds of dolls’ clothing were 
hung on the hooks, ball gowns and tea gowns 
and sun hats and yachting caps and parasols. 
But the most wonderful thing of all was this, 
on the front piazza of the doll house sat the 
little live doll who lived inside, and she was 
crying real, wet tears. 

Such a dear, little, live doll! She was just 
like the prettiest doll you ever saw in a toy 


40 How Debby Ran Away 

shop, only her legs really went, and her rose- 
red cheeks were warm, and her arms reached 
out as soon as she saw the Princess coming. 

^^You precious child!” said the Princess, 
running up to her and taking her tenderly in 
her arms, “ did you think I was lost, and did 
they leave you all alone?” 

Then the Princess sat down and began 
gently rocking the live doll and singing to her: 

“ Hush, baby, my dollie, I pray you don’t cry. 

I’ll give you some bread and some milk by and by, 
Or perhaps you want custard or maybe a tart. 

To either you’re welcome with all of my heart.” 

And then— — 

“ Rockaby, baby, thy cradle is green. 

Daddy’s a nobleman, mother’s a queen, 

Betty’s a lady and wears a fine gown ; 

Up you go, down you go, up you go, down.” 

Then the little Princess leaned over and 
whispered to Debby, 

“ I had a little doll 
The prettiest ever seen. 

She washed me the dishes 
And kept the house clean, 


41 


How Debby Ran Away 

She went to the mill 
To fetch me some flour, 

And always came home 
In less than an hour. 

She brewed me my tea, 

She baked without fail. 

She sat by the fire 
And told me a tale.” 

“ Oh,” cried Debby, clapping her hands, “ is 
it really true? ” 

It was surely true, for, in a moment, the live 
doll was comforted and she slipped out of the 
Princess’ arms, saying, 

^‘There’s so much to do. Mama. There is 
nothing cooked and the house is very dusty.” 

So they all ran up the steps of the doll house, 
the live doll going ahead to open the door. 
By squeezing a bit, Debby and the Princess 
could go through the front door, too, and there 
they all were inside. 

Then, such fun as they had! First, they 
took the little brooms and dusters, and swept 
and changed things about until it was all as 
clean as possible. Next, they went down to 
the kitchen, and kindled the fire, and cooked. 


42 How Debby Ran Away 

They found tiny canisters of sugar and spices 
and flour and whatever else they needed in the 
pantry, so they made plum puddings and lady 
fingers and kisses and candy. When the pan- 
try was filled with good things, they all sat 
around the fire and sewed on doll clothes. 

“Tell us a story, Betty dear,” the Princess 
said to the live doll. So the live doll stood up 
on the table and said in a high little voice : 

** Old mother Twichet had but one eye, 

And a long tail which she let fly, 

And every time she went through a gap, 

A bit of her tail she left in the trap.’^ 

“ I wonder what’s the answer to that,” said 
the Princess. 

“ I know,” said Debby, “ it’s a needle.” 

At this, the live doll jumped down from 
the table and began to do naughty things. She 
took the fire tongs and smashed a looking 
glass. Then she began to throw the plum 
puddings into the ash can. 

“ Oh dear,” said the little Princess, “ you’ve 
hurt her feelings, Debby. Betty is a very good 


How Debby Ran Away 43 

little doll usually, but she doesn’t like to have 
you guess her stories. We will have to go 
away for awhile until she feels better. Shall 
we go to the garden, Debby dear?” 

The two little girls squeezed through the 
front door of the doll house again. They ran 
down the stairs and out of doors into King 
Cole’s garden. 

It was the strangest garden that Debby had 
ever seen, and very beautiful. Instead of the 
singing of birds, you heard always the tinkling 
of tiny bells. The flowers that bordered the 
walks were dainty ladies in gay bonnets, and 
they nodded and swayed in time to the tinkling 
of the bells, and said good-morrow to the little 
Princess. In the midst of the garden was a 
fountain of sparkling lemonade, and about it 
grew an arbour that yielded grapes the whole 
year round. Near by was a marvellous well, 
whose bucket brimmed with ice cream, pink, 
and white, and green. 

There was a quaint little lady hurrying 
about the garden paths. She carried a curling 
iron instead of a pruning fork, and a cologne 


44 How Debby Ran Away 

flask instead of a watering pot. Here, she 
sprayed a sweet pea, there, she curled the 
petals of a rose. 

“ Mistress Mary, quite contrary,’* 

cried the little Princess, 

“ How does your garden grow ? ” 

And the quaint little lady nodded brightly 
without stopping her work, and answered : 

“ With silver bells and cockle shells, 

And pretty maids all in a row.’* 

Debby and the Princess ate clusters of 
grapes and drank from the lemonade fountain. 
They drew up buckets of ice cream. They 
played I spy with the pretty flower ladies. 
When they were quite tired, they lay down in a 
bed of tuberoses and the Princess fell fast 
asleep. Debby was not sleepy, though. It was 
so different from her own home bed. She 
sat up and looked around. 

I wonder what there is outside of the 
wall,” she thought to herself. “ I am going 
to run out for ten minutes, just to see.” 


How Debby Ran Away 45 

She stooped over and kissed the Princess’ 
cheek softly. 

I couldn’t leave my dear little Princess for 
long,’’ she said. 

Then she stepped carefully out of the bed 
of tube roses and stole softly to the end of the 
garden. Mistress Mary was busy tying rib- 
bons under a violet’s chin, and she did not turn 
around, or see. Debby pushed away some 
vines that covered the wall. Yes, there was 
a tiny crack big enough to squeeze through. 
She gave a last look at the beautiful garden. 

“ I’ll be back in ten minutes,” she said. Then 
she stepped through the crack in the wall, 
and out the other side. 


CHAPTER V 


ABOUT DAME TROT 

I T was quite surprising to find what lay the 
other side of the garden wall. Debby had 
expected, of course, to come again upon 
the street paved with marbles and the Noah’s 
Ark houses on either side, but it was not that at 
all. Instead, she found herself in a long, dark 
passageway like the tunnels the trains go 
through. It was lighted on each srde by little 
chinks of light which came through tiny dia- 
mond-shaped windows, but the windows were 
too high for a little girl to be able to see out 
them. The strangest thing of all was this: 
When Debby tried to find the hole in the wall 
to go back to the Princess again, the hole was 
not there. She was quite, quite alone, and so 
there was nothing to do but go right straight 
ahead. 

Perhaps some little girls would have cried, 
but Debby was not that sort. 

ni just hurry along,” she said to herself, 
46 


About Dame Trot 47 

squeezing the tears back. “ I’ll come out some- 
where before long, I fancy.” 

There was a bit of light like a door, way 
off in front, so Debby gathered her skirts about 
her and began running towards it as fast as 
she could. The light grew larger and larger, 
and the passageway became brighter. 

“ Oh, I’m nearly out! ” she cried, but then 
she caught her foot and fell plump over a 
queer little man who was sitting on the ground, 
all huddled in a sorry heap. 

Over his back were slung the greatest num- 
ber of little tin cans, quite empty. His suit 
had once been red and white checked ging- 
ham, but it was all covered with a thick white 
stuff that dripped from his hat and his collar 
down to his shoes. His head was bent, and a 
long piece of ice hung down from his nose. 
He looked very unhappy, and Debby picked 
herself up as quickly as she could, and said, 

“ I beg your pardon, sir, I’m sure. I didn’t 
see you. Who are you, please?” 

At this the little man looked up and sighed 
and said: 


48 


About Dame Trot 


“ I’m the milkman, the milkman, 

And where have I been? 

In Buttermilk Channel up to my chin. 

I spilt my milk and I spoilt my clothes, 

And I got a long icicle hung to my nose.” 

Debby wanted very much to laugh, but that 
would not have been polite, so she only said, 

“Why did you go there, sir?” 

“Well, Miss,” said he, “it’s a long story. 
I’m a poor man. Miss, but I’ve always had the 
palace trade. And I do say it, as I shouldn’t, 
that I give good measure. But the cow. Miss, 
she behaved so badly! I said: 

“ ‘ Oh, cushey cow bonny, let down thy milk, 

And I will give thee a gown of silk; 

A gown of silk I will give to thee 
If thou wilt let down thy milk to me.’ 

“ But the cow ran away. Miss, and I after 
her, and that meddlesome Tommy Tittle- 
mouse calling out: 

“ ‘ Simon Brodie had a cow, 

He lost his cow and couldn’t find her, 

When he had run a mile or so. 

The cow came home with her tail behind her.’ 


About Dame Trot 49 

“Then I sat me down, and up came a fine 
little lad, and I said to him: 

“ Little lad, little lad, where were you born? ” 

and he said: 

“ ‘ Far off in Lancashire under a thorn. 

Where they drink buttermilk from a ram’s horn. 

And a pumpkin, scooped, with a yellow rim 
Is the bonny bowl they breakfast in.’ 

“Well, thinks I, Lancashire is the place for 
me! But I couldn’t cross the Channel, Miss, 
the buttermilk was too deep.” 

“Why don’t you go home?” said Debby. 
“You could dry your clothes and maybe the 
cow is home by this time.” 

“That’s just what I’ll do, Miss,” said the 
little man. “ I never thought of it!” 

Then he stood up and shook himself until 
the icicle fell off his nose and the buttermilk 
flew all over Debby. He took off his hat po- 
litely and started down the passageway, but 
Debby ran after him, calling, 

“ Oh, could you tell me the way to go out of 
this place? I have lost my way,” 


5 ° 


About Dame Trot 


The queer little man stopped, and turned 
around and said: 

“ I would if I could. If I couldn’t how could I ? 

I couldn’t unless I could, could I ? 

Could you unless you could, could ye, could ye, could ye? 

You couldn’t unless you could, could ye? ” 

Then he hurried on again and was soon out 
of sight. 

“What a very silly person!” said Debby, 
but she began to feel very lonely, and just one 
large tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped 
it off, though, and ran on, and at last she came 
to the end of the passageway. It opened on a 
pretty lane with grass and canterbury bells 
growing on either side. Debby sat down on 
a stone by the side of the road for a minute 
to rest. Presently, she heard a cheery voice in 
the distance, singing, 

“ Higgledy, piggledy, my black hen. 

She lays eggs for gentlemen! 

Sometimes nine and sometimes ten, 

Higgledy, piggledy, my black hen.” 


Then the voice went on singing, 


About Dame Trot 


51 


“ As I was going to sell my eggs, 

I met a man with bandy legs, 

Bandy legs and crooked nose. 

He goes wrong where’er he goes.” 

It must have been Peter White,” said 
Debby, laughing in spite of herself, “ but who 
is this coming?” 

There was a clatter of wheels and the trit- 
trot of a pony’s hoofs. Then there came down 
the lane a funny two-wheeled cart, painted 
red, and having a basket of eggs in the back. 
It was drawn by a dapple gray pony who had 
a straw head and a hay tail, which stuck out 
straight behind. On the seat of the cart was 
a little old woman, who held the reins and 
clucked to the pony, singing as she drove : 

“ I had a little hobby horse, 

And it was dapple gray. 

It’s head was made of pease straw, 

It’s tail was made of hay. 

“ Cluck, cluck, get up there! ” 

She wore a flowered chintz petticoat and 
short gown. On her head was a white cap, 
starched very stiffly, with a puffy crown and 


52 About Dame Trot 

a wide ruffle that nearly covered her merry, 
round face. When she saw Debby sitting on 
the stone, she drew rein and called out with a 
cheery smile, 

“Are you going to town, little girl? Want 
a ride? Well, well, dearie, you are all tired 
out running through that dark passageway. 
Jump right in here with me.’’ 

Debby was very glad to climb up into the 
red cart and settle herself by the little old 
woman, who put one arm about her in the 
most protecting way. The old woman chir- 
ruped to the hobby horse, who was chewing 
up a bit of his hay tail while he waited, and 
off they rattled down the lane. 

“May I ask who you are, ma’am?” said 
Debby, after they had gone on a little way. 

“Why, yes, dearie,” said the little old 
woman. “I’m Dame Trot, and I’m house- 
keeper for the Pipers. Don’t know who the 
Pipers are! Why, they’re one of the first and 
grandest families in all Gooseland; live at 
the top of Pippin Hill. I never trust any one 
to do their marketing, and I had a few eggs 


About Dame Trot 53 

to sell to-day. Now, who are you, little Miss, 
and where are you going? ” 

Debby could not think for a minute what to 
tell Dame Trot. She did not wish to be sent 
back into that dreadful passageway again. At 
last she said, 

“ I’m just Debby, and I’m a stranger here. 
I’m out by myself to see Gooseland.” 

“Well, I’m glad I found you, dearie,” said 
Dame Trot, “you will see fine sights on the 
way to market.” 

Before long, they left the lane behind, and 
came out upon streets and houses. There were 
other teams flying in every direction, an*S 
sometimes they bumped into Dame Trot, but 
the drivers only laughed and started on again. 
Such wonderful buildings as met Debby’s 
eyes! There were toy shops, with the show 
windows full of live toys, and candy stores 
with the sign, “ Come in and Help Yourself,” 
hung over the doors. There were pavements 
of solid chocolate, and fruit trees on either side 
holding out candied fruits to the laughing 
throng that hurried underneath. There were 


54 


About Dame Trot 

paving stones of licorice drops. Over the 
paving stones rolled strawberry tarts and apple 
turnovers, currant buns and frosted cakes, all 
drawn by chocolate mice, and all labeled, 
Eat Me.” 

Dame Trot let Debby jump down and nib- 
ble a bit, now and then, and before long 
they came to the Gooseland market. It was 
crowded with such funny, laughing, squeak- 
ing, squealing creatures as Debby had never 
seen. Old Mother Hubbard was buying her 
dog a bone. A very fat pig was bargaining for 
a large roast of beef, while a little pig tugged 
at his coat tails and cried, “Wee, wee, wee!” 

“ The pigs bring up their children so badly,” 
said Dame Trot, “he’ll cry until he gets it.” 

Debby ran about from stall to stall, keep- 
ing close to Dame Trot, while the Dame sold 
her eggs and bought a cart load of good things. 
It was quite a task to get the vegetables loaded 
into the cart. They all had heads and legs, 
and the turnips were winking at the potatoes, 
who .had so many eyes that they could 
wink forwards and backwards at once. The 











About Dame Trot 


57 


squashes curved their graceful necks and were 
determined to dance with the celery. In the 
midst of the trouble Simon Brodie galloped 
by, in a clean gingham suit, and astride of a 
fat pig, crying, 

“To market, to market, 

To buy a fat pig, 

Home again, home again, 

Jiggity jig.” 

At this, the vegetables all scattered again, and 
Debby and Dame Trot chased after them, 
bundled them into the cart, and climbed in 
themselves. 

“There,’’ said Dame Trot, smoothing out 
her petticoats, “ I sometimes think it’s more 
bother than the Pipers are worth, but they are 
so fond of good things to eat. By the way, 
dearie, the Pipers are away for a little while. 
Won’t you come home with me and stay for a 
day? It is so long since I’ve seen a little girl.” 

“Why, I should love to, dear Dame Trot,” 
said Debby. 

So they unhitched the pony and drove 
slowly off toward Pippin Hill. 


CHAPTER VI 


ABOUT THE PIPERS 

I T was such a beautiful day to go driving. 

The hobby horse tossed his straw head and 
cantered along through the lanes and past 
the hedges. The vegetables kept up a cheer- 
ful bumping in the back of the red cart, and, 
before long Debby and Dame Trot came to 
the foot of Pippin Hill. The Dame loosened 
the reins and leaned so close to Debby that 
the ruffles on her cap brushed the little girl’s 
cheek, and she said: 

“ I wish I knew where the Pipers have gone. 
I’m afraid they’re after Tom again.” 

Who is Tom, Dame Trot? ” asked Debby. 
“Why are they after him?” 

“Why, Tom’s the Pipers’ boy,” said Dame 
Trot, “ and he’s always in some sort of trouble. 
Mr. Piper sent him to Parson Rook’s school, 
but that’s no sign he’s there. Night before last 

I woke up in the middle of the night. I heard 
58 


59 


About the Pipers 

a pig squealing out in the barn, and Pm sure 
I heard Tom’s voice. Now, the Pipers don’t 
keep pigs! Yesterday morning, early, down 
to the kitchen came Mother Piper in her best 
bonnet, and she said, ‘We’re going away for 
a few days. Father Piper and I, Dame Trot. 
Be sure and scrub down the back stairs, and 
keep the front gate latched.’ So I said, ‘ yes,’ 
but I thought to myself, ‘Tom’s up to some 
new prank.’” 

“What does Tom do that’s naughty. Dame 
Trot?” asked Debby. 

“ Oh, he’s been full of mischief ever since he 
was a little fellow,” said Dame Trot. “ All he 
will do from morning till night is to sit on 
the garden wall and play on his pipe. You 
must have heard of him, 

** Tom, Tom, the Piper’s son. 

Learned to play when he was young. 

But all the tune that he could play 
Was, Over the Hills and Far Away, 

Over the Hills and a great way off. 

And the wind will blow my top knot off. 

“And you can’t keep still when Tom plays. 


6o 


About the Pipers 

Whoever comes along the road has to kick up 
his heels and dance a hornpipe, for, 

Tom with his pipe does play with such skill, 

That those who hear him can never stand still. 
Whenever they hear him, they begin for to dance. 
Even pigs on their hind legs will after him prance. 

He stops the children on their way to 
school, and then they are late and the master 
scolds, 

“ For Tom with his pipe makes such a noise 
That he charms both the girls and boys. 

And they always stop to hear him play. 

Over the Hills and Far Away. 

“ As Dolly was milking the cow one day, 

Tom took up his pipes and began for to play 
To Doll and the cow, who went dancing around 
’Til the pail it was broke and the milk on the ground,” 

said Dame Trot, laughing until her spectacles 
fell off, and the pony stopped in the middle 
of the hill to turn his straw head in an in- 
quiring way and bite off a bit of his tail. 

“ Get up ! ’’ said Dame Trot, flourishing her 
whip. “But the best joke of all was this: 






9 








s 


1 







•B* 


Abaut the Pipers 63 

I was going to market myself, one day, when 
along came Tom. What did he do but make 
me dance, though I begged him to stop. 

“ He met old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs. 

He used his pipe and she used her legs. 

She danced around ’till the eggs were all broke, 

And then she stopped ; but he laughed at the joke. 

“ So they sent poor Tom off to school,” said 
Dame Trot, “ but, mark my words, he’s been 
home with a pig, and it wasn’t his own.” 

Trot, trot, went the hobby horse’s feet, and 
the cart jolted on up Pippin Hill. It was 
quite like the real country now, with pretty 
hay fields on either side of the road, and woods 
back of the fields, and the sweet smell of 
flowers in the air. 

“ Do you have to do all the house work for 
the Pipers?” asked Debby, after they had 
driven for a little way without talking. 

“ Most of it, dearie,” said Dame Trot, ^‘but 
there’s Mrs. Cackle. I couldn’t keep house 
without her. She is so good about picking up 
the crumbs, and waking me in the morning. 


64 About the Pipers 

and when she has a spare minute, off she bus- 
tles and lays me an egg in a quiet corner. I 
buy all my caps with the egg money,” said 
Dame Trot, complacently, as she tied the 
strings under her chin in a bigger bow. 

And then there’s Pussy Cat Mew. She 
knows how to set the table and put the kettle 
on and wash the cups.” 

“Who is Pussy Cat Mew?” asked Debby. 

“Tom and I were out for a walk one day,” 
said Dame Trot, “ and we heard a great mew- 
ing and all the little boys in town crying, 

“ Diddlety, diddlety, dumpty, 

The cat’s run up the plum tree, 

Half a crown to fetch her down, 

Diddlety, diddlety, dumpty. 

“ Such a wet, hungry little kitten as she was ! 
Tom climbed up the plum tree and fetched 
her down. We took her home with us, and 
she’s a fine, large cat, now, and a sight of com- 
pany for me down in the kitchen.” 

As they came to the top of Pippin Hill, 
Debby saw a tall ju-jube paste house just 


About the Pipers 65 

ahead, with a great many tall trees about it 
the same shape as the trees in a toy village. 
Before long, Dame Trot turned the pony into 
the driveway between the rows of trees. They 
drove up the path to a wide front door that 
had a lemon drop bell and a polished door 
plate marked “ P. Piper,” in red caraway 
seeds. 

“Well, here we are, at last, dearie,” said 
Dame Trot, jumping down from her seat, and 
beginning to help the vegetables out, one by 
one. 

Debby stepped carefully over the wheel and 
down to the steps. She smelled of the door 
plate, which was not very polite to do, but it 
looked so very inviting. Then they suddenly 
heard strange noises from the other side of 
the door. 

“Mee-aouw, mee-aouw, oh, dear!” 

“ Cut, cut-ca-da-cut, cut, cut-ca-da-cut. 
Wait ’till the Dame sees you! ” 

The front door swung wide so quickly that 
Debby nearly fell into the wings of a large, 
black hen, who had opened it from the inside. 


66 About the Pipers 

She had on a long white apron tied in a but- 
terfly bow behind, and she held out one claw 
as soon as she saw Debby. Debby took hold 
of the claw, and the hen shook her hand so 
violently that she nearly lost her balance, for, 
with the other claw, she held a cat by the tail. 

Dame Trot bustled up the steps with an un- 
ruly beet under one arm and a kicking turnip 
under the other. 

“What’s all this?” she said. “What has 
happened? ” 

The hen began clucking and scolding in a 
very loud voice : 

“ Pussy Cat Mew jumped over a coal, 

And in her best petticoat burned a great hole. 

Now Pussy’s weeping, she’ll have no more milk 
Until her best petticoat’s mended with silk.” 

And Mrs. Cackle — for it was really she — 
dragged out the poor pussy, who wore a red 
rufif about her neck, and a gay red skirt with 
a large burned hole in the front, which she 
was trying to cover with her paws. 

“There, there,” said Dame Trot, stroking 
Pussy Cat Mew gently, “ it’s all right. Puss. 


About the Pipers 67 

Here’s a nice little girl come to play with you, 
and the Pipers are away, and we’ll all have a 
tea party!” 

Mrs. Cackle began to cluck with joy, Corn 
waffles, corn waffles! Oh, my gizzard and 
drumsticks, corn waffles!” Dropping Pussy 
Cat Mew, she spread her wings and hurried 
down the long hall and out of sight. Pussy 
Cat Mew stopped crying and rubbed, purring, 
against Debby’s legs. Dame Trot unharnessed 
the hobby horse and led him to the barn, and 
they all went into Dame Trot’s kitchen. 

It was the prettiest kitchen possible, with 
deep windows and red geraniums growing in 
boxes. The pans were hung about in rows, 
and they all shone like so many silver mirrors. 
The brass tea kettle was hopping gaily about 
on the hearth, with its spout cocked over 
its cover, and the fire burned and crackled 
cheerily. 

Pussy Cat Mew caught the kettle and hung 
it over the hob. Dame Trot drew out a little 
round table and began to bustle about with the 
covers, and Mrs. Cackle came in from some- 


68 About the Pipers 

where with a tray of china carefully balanced 
on one wing. 

“Mrs. Piper’s gold band! Do you dare?” 
said Dame Trot, stopping in the middle of the 
floor with her hands up in dismay. 

“Not a chick — I mean a person — will be 
the wiser,” said Mrs. Cackle. So they set the 
table with Mrs. Piper’s gold band china. 

“Who’s coming to the party?” asked 
Debby, dancing a jig with Pussy Cat Mew, 
and getting in everybody’s way at once. “ Oh, 
I’m having the best time. Dame Trot! ” 

“Well, dearie,” said Dame Trot, “as soon 
as Mother Piper went yesterday, I said to my- 
self, ^ I’ll have in a few of the neighbours for 
a friendly cup of tea with me.’ I’ll make you 
acquainted with them all, dearie.” 

Mrs. Cackle had hurried ofif down cellar, 
and now she came back with some canned corn 
instead of the strawberry preserve. Pussy Cat 
Mew ate a little from the top of the cream jug 
when no one was looking. Dame Trot rolled 
up her sleeves and made waffles and loaf cake, 
and the tea kettle bubbled and sang away over 


About the Pipers 69 

the fire, while Debby jumped about, crying 
in great glee, 

“Oh, a party, a tea party!” 

At last, the tea things were quite ready. Mrs. 
Cackle put more coals on the fire, and fanned 
it with her wings until it burned with a 
brighter flame. Then they set the chairs about 
the table, Debby’s next Mrs. Cackle, Dame 
Trot at the head, and Pussy Cat Mew at the 
foot. 


Dame Trot and her cat 
Sat down for a chat 
The Dame sat on this side 
The cat sat on that. 

“ Puss,” said the Dame, 

“ Can you catch a rat 
Or a mouse in the dark? ” 
“ Purr,” said the cat. 


And they all waited for the party to come in. 


CHAPTER VII 


ABOUT THE TEA PARTY AND HOW THE 
PIPERS CAME HOME 

T last, there was a faint knock at the 



^ back door. Mrs. Cackle flew to open 
it, and in stepped a very thin little person 
with a lean kitten under one arm, and a 
long-legged puppy trailing behind. Her 
nose was so long and thin it looked like a 
paper cutter, and she wore cushions on her 
elbows to keep them from sticking into things. 
She dropped the kitten into the coal scuttle, 
and poked the puppy under the stove, and then 
she began curtseying to Dame Trot and say- 
ing in a loud voice, 

“ Good-day, good-day to you. Dame Trot. 
And the Pipers away, and tea brewing!” 

Then she rubbed her long fingers together, 
and began pouring herself a cup of tea with- 
out being asked. 

Mrs. Cackle clucked in Debby’s ear: 


About the Tea Party 71 

“ Old Mrs. MacShuttle lives in a coal scuttle 
Along with her dog and her cat. 

What they eat I can’t tell 

But ’tis known very well 

That none of the party grows fat.” 

As soon as Mrs. MacShuttle was seated, 
there came a second knock at the door, louder 
than the first, and in burst a fat little person 
with a big basket over her arm, and a pair of 
green goggles astride of her nose. She sat 
down by the fire, and began counting the cop- 
per pennies from a calico reticule which hung 
from her waist, saying to herself all the time, 
“ Hot pies, hot pies, baked apples to sell. 
Who will buy my hot pies? ” 

“ She’s always thinking about her business,” 
clucked Mrs. Cackle to Debby in a hoarse 
whisper. 

“ There was an old woman lived under the hill, 

A long time ago, and she’s living there still, 

Baked apples she sold, and cranberry pies. 

And she’s the old woman who never told lies.” 

There came a third knock at the door, and 
Mrs. Cackle opened it wide to let in a quaint 


72 


About the Tea Party 

little lady with bobbing curls all about her 
smiling rosy face. She might have been a real 
little girl: she was so tiny, and on her head 
was balanced a tray of sugary, brown, currant 
buns. Behind her came a wrinkled old crone, 
who was scolding in a very loud voice, and 
saying: 

“ My little old man and I fell out, 

How shall we bring this matter about? 

Bring it about as well as you can, 

Get you gone you little old man.” 

The little lady with the bun tray was saying, 

‘‘Hush, hush, mind your manners!” 

Mrs. Cackle took Debby into the pantry and 
whispered to her: 

“ There was an old woman, and what do you think? 

She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink! 

Victuals and drink were the chief of her diet. 

And yet this old woman could never keep quiet.” 

“ She is our new neighbour,” went on Mrs. 
Cackle, pointing to the quaint little lady with 
the curls: 

“ There was a little woman, as IVe been told. 
Who was not very young, nor yet very old. 


73 


About the Tea Party 

Now, this little woman her living got 
By selling codlins, hot, hot, hot.” 

For a short space there was a great hubbub 
in Dame Trot’s kitchen. The Dame was say- 
ing: “How do you do,” to her guests, and 
helping them off with their shawls. She was 
so anxious to relieve them at once, that she 
put all the bonnets in the pie lady’s basket, by 
mistake, but Mrs. Cackle pulled them out with 
her bill, and flew off with them under her 
wing. 

Mrs. MacShuttle’s kitten spit at Pussy Cat 
Mew, and Pussy Cat Mew promptly boxed the 
kitten’s ears. The puppy’s long legs spread 
out so far from under the stove that Debby 
was continually stepping on them, which made 
the puppy howl. But, at last, they were all 
safely seated around the tea table. 

Dame Trot stood up at the head of the table. 

“Friends,” she said, “allow me to present 
to you a newcomer to Gooseland ” 

Debby wriggled about in her chair lest 
Dame Trot should ask her where she came 
from and where she was going, 


74 About the Tea Party 

“Debby! Mrs. MacShuttle, Debby.” 

Mrs. MacShuttle rose and bowed low until 
Debby could almost hear her bones rattle. 

^‘The Pie Woman, Debby.’’ 

The Pie Woman stood up, wiped her spec- 
tacles, and began feeling about for her basket, 
but Mrs. MacShuttle pulled her down into 
her chair again. 

“ The Codlin Lady, Debby,” went on Dame 
Trot. 

The little lady who looked so sweet and 
young ran over to Debby, and put her arms 
about her neck, and kissed her warmly. 

‘^This,” said Dame Trot, pointing to the 
victuals and drink lady, “is Mrs. Simon 
Brodie! ” 

Then they all settled themselves in their 
chairs again, and for a few minutes there was 
no sound save the rattle of the tea silver and 
the clinking of Mrs. Piper’s gold band china. 
Dame Trot poured tea until it seemed as if 
there could be none left in the tea pot. 

“Mrs. MacShuttle has had six cups!” 
Debby whispered at last across the table to 



Dame Trot Poured Tea Until it Seemed as if There Could be None Left 










h a 


77 


Abcmt the Tea Party 

Pussy Cat Mew, but Mrs. Cackle tweaked 
Debby’s boot under the table: for it is not po- 
lite to notice such things. 

It was Pussy Cat Mew’s task to serve the 
cream. Every time she passed the cream pot 
she stuck in her paw and washed it off behind 
her napkin, but no one, except Debby, saw. At 
last Mrs. Cackle looked up from her plate and 
said: 

I’m always so very fond of corn waffles, 
anything with corn in it, you know.” 

Mrs. Simon Brodie sniffed. I suppose you 
like chicken salad and Johnny bread,” she 
said: 

This was most disagreeable for Mrs. Brodie 
to say, and Mrs. Cackle was about to tweak 
her across the table, when Mrs. MacShuttle 
broke in with, 

“ What is all this talk about Tom? I heard 
that 


“ Tom, Tom, the Piper’s son 
Caught a pig and away he run! 

The pig was eat and Tom was beat. 
And Tom ran crying down the street.” 


78 About the Tea Party 

“Poor Tom!” said Dame Trot, wiping a 
tear from the corner of her eye with her nap- 
kin. “ Likely enough it’s true.” 

. “Yes,” said the Pie Woman, “ and they do 
say that Tom and his cousin Peter ran off with 
all the peppers from Parson’s garden. I heard 
it from Tommy Tittlemouse. Said he : 

“ Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. 

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, 

Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper 
picked ? ” 

“Well, Tom’s a kind-hearted boy,” said 
the little Codlin Lady, who had taken a ball 
of yarn out of an apron pocket and was knit- 
ting away busily and eating, too, as the needles 
clicked in and out. 

“ Do you remember what he did to the ped- 
dler? ” Then she went on as she knitted: 

“ Tom saw an old peddler was driving an ass 
Heavy laden with pots, pans, kettles, and brass. 

He took out his pipe and he played them a tune. 
And the animal’s load was lightened full soon.” 

“What a very queer boy Tom must be!” 


79 


About the Tea Party 

said Debby to herself. She had eaten her 
tea, and they were all so busy talking that they 
never noticed when she slipped down from her 
chair and away from the table. She tip-toed 
over to the coal scuttle, but Mrs. MacShut- 
tle’s cat was fast asleep and snoring loudly. 
Pussy Cat Mew had gone to sleep, too, with 
her nose in the cream pot. Mrs. Cackle, 
Dame Trot, and the old ladies were trying, 
each one, to see which could talk the loudest. 

Fm going up stairs,” said Debby. “ I 
want to see what this house is like.” So she 
went softly up the front stairs, away from the 
kitchen. 

It was all quite wonderful, what she saw at 
the head of the stairs. Everything inside the 
house was as strange and enchanting as the out- 
side. The furniture men, the masons, and the 
paper-hangers must all have been candy men: 
for the tables, the walls, and the curtains, even, 
were made of nothing but sugar. The draw- 
ing room had a wonderful tiled floor all laid 
with pink and white lozenges cemented to- 
gether with fig paste. There were tall nougat 


8o About the Tea Party 

pillars from floor to ceiling, and the black 
walnut furniture was really a dark, rich choco- 
late. There were pictures of the whole Piper 
family, framed in white cream bars, and 
hung on the walls. Debby stood a long time in 
front of the portrait of a fat little boy who 
wore knee breeches and a wide linen collar. 

It must be Tom,” she said, “ and he looks 
very nice! ” 

Of course it was very naughty to poke about 
by oneself in another person’s house, but 
Debby grew still naughtier. She went up to 
a centre table, and she nibbled the rose fringe 
from the table cover. Then she sat down on 
the floor and gnawed one leg of the table. It 
was cream, inside of the chocolate, and so 
Debby nibbled the other three legs to make 
the table stand even. A rocking chair came 
next, and naughty Debby ate off the rockers 
and both the arms. She ate the back legs of 
the sofa, and leaned it up against the wall so 
it would not tip over. 

I don’t care,” she said to herself, they 
look much beautifuler this way.” 


About the Tea Party 8i 

The rugs were made of braided taffy and 
there were so many of them that it was quite 
a task to go around each one, but she decided 
to scallop the edges. She had done them all 
and was about to eat off the ears from a cocoa- 
nut cream bust of Father Piper, when she 
heard a tremendous ringing at the front door 
bell. Then, more ringing, and Mrs. Cackle 
scuttling along the hall, and then flying back 
to the kitchen, crying: 

“The Pipers, the Pipers! Oh, dearie me, 
what shall we do? ” 

By this time the ringing was frightfully 
loud. Debby ran to the head of the stairs 
and peeped down. There was a great cack- 
ling and mewing and hurrying and clatter of 
dishes from the kitchen. Mrs. MacShuttle 
disappeared through the back door with the 
teapot under her arm. The Pie Woman and 
Mrs. Simon Brodie went over the garden wall 
with the left-over waffles and loaf cake in the 
pie basket. The Codlin Woman was nowhere 
to be seen, and Dame Trot was busily scrub- 
bing down the back stairs. 


82 About the Tea Party 

Debby looked about her at the wobbly sofa 
and the rocking chair with no rockers and the 
rugs with no fringe. 

I fancy Pd better be going, too,” she said. 

So when Mrs. Cackle opened the door for 
the Pipers, Debby slipped out by her without 
saying good-bye, even. She rushed through 
the front gate, and began running as fast as 
she could down Pippin Hill. 


CHAPTER VIII 


ABOUT WEE WILLIE WINKIE 

O N and on ran Debby. When she stopped 
a minute for breath, and turned around, 
she could see Dame Trot waving her apron, 
and Mrs. Piper in her best bonnet, flourishing 
a green umbrella over the front gate. 

“ Oh! oh! ” cried Debby, “ I wish I hadn’t 
eaten the furniture. Pm going back to King 
Cole’s palace and my dear little Princess, and 
I’ll never, never run away again.” 

Then she started on again down the hill, 
but the hill was covered with deep mud, and 
the fences all ran as fast as Debby did, and 
the trees and bushes skipped along beside her 
so fast that she did not get anywhere at all in 
spite of her haste. 

‘‘You tiresome thing,” she said at last to an 
old fencepost which kept all the time a little 
way ahead of her, “ I’ll sit on you, I will.” 

So she climbed up the fence rails and onto 
83 


84 About Wee Willie Winkie 

the post, but the minute she sat down, the 
fencepost planted its feet firmly in the ground 
and stood quite still, so that plan did not 
succeed at all. 

“ ril try to think of a rhyme to say. They 
all talk that way here,” said Debby. So she 
stood in the middle of the road as straight as 
she was able, and she made a bow to nobody 
in particular, and began repeating in a loud 
voice : 

“ Oh, that I was where I would he, 

Then would I be where I am not, 

But where I am I must be. 

And where I would be, I cannot. 

That sounds very queer. I don’t remember 
of ever having said that before,” said Debby. 

But everything is queer with me, now.” 

She started running again, but the old fence- 
post stuck out its arms akimbo and went so 
much faster than she that it was soon quite 
out of sight, while the hedges rushed past 
like express trains. At last, Debby ran 
straight into the arms of an old gentlen an 
who appeared to be jumping in and out of one 


About Wee Willie Winkie 85 

of the bushes at the side of the road. He was 
obliged to jump so fast, in order to keep up 
with the bush, that he never saw Debby com- 
ing, and he kept muttering to himself : 

“ There was a man in our town, 

And he was wondrous wise, 

He jumped into a bramble bush 
And scratched out both his eyes ! 

But when he saw his eyes were out, 

With all his might and main, 

He jumped into the bramble bush 
And scratched them in again.” 

Please, sir,” said Debby, trying to stop 
alongside of him, “ how do you go to King 
Cole’s palace? ” 

I don’t go,” said the little old gentle- 
man. Then he put in his eyes, which had 
been sticking to two brambles, looked at^ 
Debby, and said : 

“ As I was going up Pippin Hill, 

Pippin Hill was dirty. 

.p There I met a little Miss, 

And she dropped me a curtsy.” 


86 About Wee Willie Winkie 


‘‘There isn’t any use talking to him,” said 
Debby. “ I suppose I shall keep on running 
here all night and never come to any place.” 

Just then, she saw two creatures coming 
slowly toward her up the hill. One was a 
long-legged young turkey hen, and the other 
was a duck who could not walk very well, 
because one of its legs was much shorter than 
the other. The turkey was talking very fast, 
and stopping to pick up the duck every time 
it fell down. 

Debby had found out by this time that the 
best way to meet a person was to stand still 
instead of trying to go towards him, so she 
waited until the turkey and the duck were 
quite close and then she said to them : 

“ Oh, could you tell me the way to King 
Cole’s palace? ” 

The two looked at her a minute, and then 
the duck pointed to the turkey and said: 

“The girl in the lane who couldn’t speak plain 
Went, ‘ gobble, gobble, gobble.’ ” 

The turkey hen hodded her head, and 
pointed to the duck, and said in a thick voice : 



Then He Put in His Eyes^ Which had been 
Sticking to Two Brambles 






V 


About Wee Willie Winkie 89 

“ The girl on the hill who couldn’t stand still 
Went wobble, wobble, wobble.” 

Then the two locked wings and went on 
past Debby, up the hill. 

“ It’s very strange/’ said Debby, after watch- 
ing them go out of sight, how they can get 
somewhere and I can’t, and how nobody in all 
Gooseland can tell a little girl which way to 
go.” 

She had grown quite dizzy with so much 
running in one place, and seeing the trees go 
past her, and at last she sat down for a minute 
to rest. 

“ Oh, I wish that I could get to the bottom of 
Pippin Hill,” she said. Just then, a tree hur- 
ried past, and Debby’s apron brushed the bark. 
It must have been a wishing tree; for all at 
once Debby felt herself lifted off her feet. 

“Good-bye!” she called as she passed the 
man in the bramble bush. “ Good-bye!” she 
said to the old fencepost, as she caught up 
with it, and then passed by. In a minute, she 
found herself sitting by the side of the road, at 
the bottom of Pippin Hill. 


90 About Wee Willie Winkie 

It was fine to be down the hill and away 
from the Pipers, but everything looked so 
very different. It was long after tea time and 
all the house doors were shut, the market was 
still and deserted, and there wasn’t a team in 
sight. The gates were locked, too, and little 
lights were burning at all the windows. 
The fireflies were running about in the grass 
with little lamps under their wings, and it 
was fast growing quite dark. All along 
the street were burning small jack-o’-lanterns 
set up atop of barley sugar sticks, and they 
winked their eyes and showed their teeth at 
Debby. 

She began to cry, for she really could not 
help it, out there all alone, but then she saw a 
strange little fellow running along the street. 
He was about as tall as a good-sized rabbit 
when it holds its ears up high. He wore a 
long white nightgown and a pointed white 
cotton nightcap, and he carried a little white 
candlestick in one hand which he swung from 
side to side as he hurried along. 

He stopped at every gate and unlatched 


About Wee Willie Winkie 91 

it. Sometimes he knocked at the front door, 
and sometimes he opened it without knocking. 
Sometimes he tapped at the windows, and 
sometimes he ran into the houses, and up the 
stairways, and down again. But wherever he 
went he called out in a soft little voice: 

Are the children in bed? It is now ten 
o’clock!’’ And wherever he went, the lights 
were quickly turned out, and the houses left 
quite dark. 

I know who he is,” thought Debby to her- 
self : 

“ We Willie Winkie runs through the town 
Upstairs, and downstairs, in his nightgown. 

Tapping at the windows, and calling at the lock, 

‘ Are the children in bed, for ’tis now ten o’clock? ’ ” 

And Willie Winkie kept coming nearer. 
At one house he seemed to have a little trouble. 
Debby heard, 

‘‘ * Let’s go to bed,’ said Sleepy Head, 

‘ Oh, tarry a while,’ said Slow, 

‘ Put on the pot,’ says Greedy Tot, 

‘ We’ll sup before we go.’ ” 


92 About Wee Willie Winkie 

Then Wee Willie Winkie’s little voice in- 
sisting: 

’Tis ten o’clock, ten o’clock, I say ! ” And 
at last the lights went out in that house, too. 

“ I’m sure I can’t tell what he will think of 
me,” said Debby. “ Perhaps he won’t see me 
at all and, anyway, he mustn’t find me cry- 
ing.” So she sat up and dried her eyes. 

Wee Willie Winkie came along slowly. He 
seemed to think that his work was quite done 
for the evening, and he took a little tin snuffer 
out of his pocket and was just about to snuff 
his candle, when Debby said: 

“ Please, Willie Winkie, I’d go to bed, too, 
but I’m a stranger here, and I haven’t any 
bed.” 

Wee Willie Winkie jumped so high in sur- 
prise that he turned his candlestick bottom side 
up, and the tallow dripped all over his night- 
gown. He righted it carefully, and then he 
said to himself: 

^‘No bed! No bed at ten o’clock! Oh, 
the beadle, the beadle, what would he say? ” 
Then he held his candle high over his head, 


About Wee Willie Winkie 93 

to show Debby the way, and he said in his soft 
little voice : 

“ Come with me, little girl, and I will find 
you a place to sleep.” 

So they hurried along past the houses, the 
jack-o’-lantern lights growing farther and far- 
ther apart until they looked too sleepy to wink 
even, and at last they came to a large field 
of poppies. Most of the poppies stood with 
their petals tightly folded together and little 
snores coming from within. 

Who is asleep inside there? ” asked Debby 
in a whisper. 

Wee Willie Winkie began skipping about 
among the poppies, smoothing the rumpled 
petals here and there with his soft little hands. 

Here’s John,” he said. “ He was such a 
careless fellow! 

“ Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John 
Went to bed with his stockings on, 

One shoe off, and one shoe on! 

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John. 

“ So we put him out here for a few nights 
until his mother can mend his stockings.” 


94 About Wee Willie Winkie 

This is Baby Bunting,” he went on, point- 
ing to a tiny pink poppy. The rabbits run 
so fast and her father isn’t home yet with the 
skin. There wasn’t a blanket to wrap her in, 
so we put her to sleep out here.” 

Wee Willie Winkie took hold of the poppy 
stalk and rocked Baby Bunting to and fro, 
singing: 

“ Bye, Baby Bunting, 

Father’s gone a-hunting, 

Gone to fetch a rabbit skin 
To wrap the Baby Bunting in.” 

“Oh, may I just peep at her?” said Debby. 

“No, no,” said Willie Winkie, “you might 
wake her, and you should be asleep yourself, 
you know. Oh, if the beadle should catch 
you! ” 

Debby did not know what a beadle was, but 
she followed Wee Willie Winkie in and out 
between the poppies until they came to a very 
large white bloom, standing quite alone, with 
its petals spread out wide. 

“This one is big enough; jump in, little 
girl,” said Willie Winkie, holding the poppy 


About Wee Willie Winkie 95 

down by the stem so Debby could crawl inside. 
Then he clambered up the stalk himself, and 
spread the petals carefully over Debby. He 
held his candlestick up once more, saying, 

“ Good night, little girl, ’tis ten o’clock.” 
And then he hurried off, snuffing his candle 
as he went. 

It was so delightfully soft and sweet smell- 
ing inside the poppy, Debby forgot all 
about the Pipers and the dark. The night 
wind swayed the poppy back and forth, and 
she rested her tired little head on her arm and 
was soon fast asleep. 


CHAPTER IX 


ABOUT NANCY ETTICOAT AND THE GARDEN 
OF PUMPKINS 

P erhaps Debby had been asleep for a 
long time. Perhaps it had been for only 
a little while, but all at once she felt a soft, 
warm breath on her cheek, and so she woke 
directly. It was not exactly night, for, away 
off, the sky looked pink like the day. It 
was not quite morning, because a star was 
shining down on the poppy. Debby pushed 
aside the petals of the poppy and stretched 
her arms out wide, and rubbed her eyes. 
There was the same sound of little snores all 
about her, but suddenly she heard a voice 
quite close saying in a plaintive tone: 

“Well, I wondered how much longer you 
were going to sleep! In a little while I 
shouldn’t have been tall enough to see you, 
and I did so much want some one to play with. 
I don’t see how anyone can be so tiresome as to 
sleep all night long.” 


96 


About Nancy Etticoat 97 

Debby peered over the edge of the poppy. 
There was a funny little person standing on 
the ground looking up at her. She was quite 
thin, and her white dress came down to her 
toes. Her arms hung so stiff and straight at 
her sides that you thought at first sight she 
hadn’t any. She wore a quantity of orange 
hair, which came so low over her forehead 
that you couldn’t see any of her face to speak 
of but a very red nose. 

Debby climbed down the poppy stalk. 

“ She looks for all the world like a candle,” 
she said to herself, but not aloud for fear of 
hurting the small creature’s feelings. But, 
in a minute, the small person began jabbering 
to introduce herself : 

Little Nancy Etticoat — in a white petticoat, 

And a red nose, 

The longer she stands, the shorter she grows.” 

Even while Nancy spoke, her head began 
settling down on her shoulders, and Debby 
cried out in alarm, 

“ Oh, I hope you are not going out, ma’am!” 


9^ About Nancy Etticoat 

Nancy flickered a bit, for that was a way 
she had of smiling, and she said, 

“Why, I have two hours yet! Tm part 
sperm and some wax and some bayberry; not 
all tallow, you see. Now, what shall we do? ’’ 

“ Let’s wake everybody up,” said Debby. 

So they raced in and out among the poppies, 
Nancy running ahead and leaving a long trail 
of light behind to show Debby the way. They 
shook the poppy stalks and shouted, but not a 
person stirred, and the snoring went on just 
as before. At last, Nancy stood up on a 
large stone and called out as loudly as she 
could: 

“ Boys and girls, come out to play, 

The moon doth shine as bright as day, 

Come with a whoop and come with a call, 

Come with a good will or not at all. 

You find milk, and I’ll find flour. 

And we’ll have a pudding in half an hour.” 

But no one stirred and no one woke. No 
one seemed to have heard save an old black 
bat who came flopping clumsily along over 
the grass to see what all the noise was about. 


About Nancy Etticoat 99 

Watch me tease him,” cried Nancy. She 
went up to him and sang: 

“ Bat, bat, 

Come under my hat. 

And ril give you a slice of bacon. 

And when I bake. I’ll give you a cake; 

If I am not mistaken.” 

So the old black bat floundered along 
towards Nancy, but as soon as she came near, 
the light from her hair blinded his eyes and 
he flopped over on the ground. Then Nancy 
tripped off in another direction and sang 
again, and the stupid old bat followed on be- 
hind with the same result. Debby thought it 
was great fun, and they might have played 
with the bat for a long time, but, just then 
they heard a loud rattle of wheels and snap- 
ping of whips and clatter of hoofs on the 
highway. 

Debby and Nancy raced down through the 
poppy field and out to the road just in time 
to see a gay, yellow coach come lumbering 
along. The coachman, who wore a gold livery 
and a cocked hat, was driving the horses as 


loo About Nancy Etticoat 

hard as he could. A dainty lady in a wonder- 
ful silver spangled gown was leaning out of 
the coach window and urging the coachman 
to drive faster, dabbing her eyes with a cob- 
webby handkerchief as she cried: 

“ The clock struck twelve, the clock struck 
twelve! Oh, what shall I do!” 

“ Come,” cried Nancy, who was melting so 
fast now that she barely reached Debby’s knee. 

Let’s catch a ride.” 

So they raced after the coach, climbed up 
at the back under the footman’s seat, where 
no one could see them, and they all went gal- 
loping on down the road. The coach went 
so fast that the lights at the side of the road 
looked like glimmering fire-flies. It rocked 
from this side to that. Poor Nancy was 
scarcely able to keep her seat, so Debby put 
one hand around Nancy’s waist, holding her 
at arm’s length, for the heat from her nose was 
not very pleasant. 

At last they stopped in front of a small, dark 
house, and the coach door opened. Debby 
craned her neck around the wheel to see the 



They All Went Galloping Down the Road 







About Nancy Etticoat 103 

pretty lady get out, but only a little scullery 
maid in sooty gown and apron stepped out and 
went softly into the house. 

“ I wonder,” said Debby to Nancy, “ if that 
was Cinderella?” But Nancy was so short 
now that she didn’t seem to hear, and the coach 
galloped on. Faster and faster they went! 
Debby held tightly to the sides, and the owls 
sitting at the tops of the trees peered down to 
see the mad thing go by. Nancy grew shorter, 
and shorter and very soft. At last her nose 
reached the bottom of her petticoat, and she 
dropped down in the road with a last flicker 
and sizzle. 

Poor Nancy,” said Debby, looking down 
at her, “ good-bye, dear. I’d like to play with 
you again, some time.” But she had so much 
difficulty in keeping her seat that she soon for- 
got about Nancy altogether. 

After a while, the coach turned in between 
two larger jack-o’-lantern lights. It went more 
slowly for a little ways, and then, smash, crack, 
squeak! The driver jumped down from his 
seat and changed at once into a large black 


104 About Nancy Etticoat 

rat, who ran away squealing. The eight coach 
horses suddenly became eight little mice, 
who scampered off as fast as they could, and 
Debby found herself atop of a large orange 
pumpkin! 

The sun was beginning to shine, and Debby 
looked about her. As far as she could see, there 
was nothing but a garden of pumpkins; big 
pumpkins and little pumpkins, fat pumpkins 
and long pumpkins, green pumpkins and 
bright orange pumpkins. There was a house 
at the end of the garden, but it looked like a 
pumpkin, too, for the gable roof met the bow 
windows in a curve, the clapboards were 
painted orange, and the chimney, which was 
painted green, was stuck up in the middle of 
the roof like a stem. 

Debby was just going to get down and look 
about the garden for herself, when one of the 
cracks in the pumpkin house opened wide like 
a door, and an ogre came out. He was a very 
fierce-looking ogre, indeed, with a very red 
face and only one eye, which was set in the 
middle of his forehead. In one hand he car- 


About Nancy Etticoat 105 

ried a huge pot of paint, and he held a large 
paint brush in the other. He began tramping 
about, up and down the garden, and whenever 
he spied a green pumpkin, he painted it 
orange. 

Debby slipped down to the ground and hid 
herself under a friendly vine which had large 
leaves. She tried very hard to keep quite still, 
for the ogre was most dreadful to look at, and 
she did not wish him to catch her. 

As he swung his paint brush, the orange 
paint splashed right and left, but he did not 
seem to care, and he rolled his one eye up and 
down and all around. When the green pump- 
kins were every one painted, he set down his 
paint pot and began growling to himself : 

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.** 

Then he began to eat pumpkins very fast. 
He took them by the stem, as one does a pear, 
and he made one bite of the smaller pumpkins 
and two bites of the larger ones. When he 
had eaten twenty-five pumpkins, he picked up 
his paint pot and brush again, and went slowly 


io6 About Nancy Etticoat 

back into his house, shutting the door behind 
him. 

“Well,” said Debby, as she crept cautiously 
out from under the leaves, “ that was a narrow 
escape! I expect he would have made about 
three bites of me. I’d better go away from this 
place as fast as I can.” 

She was just starting to find her way out of 
the garden of pumpkins, when she heard a 
faint, muffled, “ Boo-hoo, boo-hoo,” quite near 
by. Debby stopped to listen, and it came again, 
a little louder than before — “ Boo-hoo, boo- 
hoo, oh, dear, boo-hoo! ” 

The noise seemed to come from a very large 
pumpkin quite close to Debby. She leaned 
down and put her ear to the pumpkin. Yes, 
there was a sound of some one moving about 
inside and a gentle kicking on the shell. 
Debby rapped on the outside of the pumpkin 
shell; some one rapped in answer on the in- 
side. 

“ I wish I could make a hole in it,” said 
Debby. “If I only had a knife!” 

Just then she touched the chain that hung 


About Nancy Etticoat 107 

about her neck, and the little forgotten charm 
Old King Cole had given her. In a minute a 
tiny hole appeared in the pumpkin, and out 
of it came a tiny arm. The hole grew larger, 
and Debby peeped inside the shell. It was 
quite hollow inside, and in the very centre sat 
a forlorn little lady. Her cap was all awry, 
her yellow silk gown was rumpled and mussed, 
and she was rocking to and fro and singing to 
herself: 

“ Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater. 

Had a wife and couldn’t keep her. 

Put her in a pumpkin shell 
And there he kept her very well.” 

Oh,” said Debby, what a shame ; but you 
shan’t stay here a minute longer, you poor 
dear!” 

She broke open the shell of the pumpkin, 
reached inside, and lifted out Mrs. Pumpkin 
Eater, setting her carefully down on the 
ground. The little lady was dazzled for a 
minute by the bright light, and then she began 
wringing her hands, and saying: 

“ Oh, we must run before he sees us.” 


io8 About Nancy Etticoat 

They were not a minute too soon in starting, 
for they heard steps behind them, crunch, 
crunching along through the vines. Debby 
took Mrs. Pumpkin Eater by the hand, and 
they ran as fast as they could away from Peter 
and the garden of pumpkins. 


CHAPTER X 

‘ABOUT THE HORNER RESTAURANT 
HE vines caught at their toes and tripped 



them. All the time the crunch, crunch 
of Peter’s feet came near and still nearer. At 
last they could almost feel his hot breath on 
their cheeks, but Debby touched her magic 
charm once more and, in a second, the garden 
of pumpkins had quite vanished, Peter, the 
ogre, was far away, and they stood alone on 
the high road again. 

“Well, we’re safe,” said Debby.- “How 
did he ever catch you and shut you up, Mrs. 
Pumpkin Eater? ” 

“ I don’t know, I’m sure,” said the little 
lady, still wringing her hands and looking 
frightened. “ I was coming from London. 
Oh, I would have taken good care of the bread 
and cheese! I was riding in a one-wheeled 
tram, but it broke, and the ogre came running 
out, and he carried me off to. his garden of 


109 


no The Horner Restaurant 

pumpkins. He shut me up in a pumpkin shell, 
he did, he did! Boo-hoo.” 

“There, there,” said Debby, patting the lit- 
tle lady tenderly and smoothing her ruffles and 
bows, “you’re all right now, dear, and I’ll 
try and find the way to take you home.” 

But the high road looked very long and 
very dusty, and they walked on for quite a 
space without seeing any one. The little lady 
held Debby’s hand very tightly, and still 
trembled, but Debby marched gaily ahead. 

“We’ll come to a house soon, dear,” she 
said. 

Presently they saw some one a little way 
ahead by the side of the road. They hurried 
along and came upon a little boy. He was as 
big as Debby, but he was still in frocks and 
gingham pinafores. He had a bib tied under 
his chin, marked, “ For a Good Boy,” and he 
was busily loading a little wooden cart with 
toys. There was a spotted wooden horse tied 
to the cart, and the boy would drive it a little 
way and then tip out all the toys again. 

“ He’s rather a big boy to be doing that,” 


The Homer Restaurant 1 1 1 


Debby said to Mrs. Pumpkin Eater, but, 
aloud, she said: 

“Who are you, boy?” 

The boy dropped his toys for a minute, and 
said: 

“ A horse and cart had Billy Smart 
To play with when it pleased him. 

The cart he’d load by the side of the road 
And be happy if no one teased him.” 

“We won’t tease you at all, Billy,” said 
Debby. “ But will you please give us a ride 
and help us to get somewhere? We’ve walked 
a long way and we’re tired.” 

Billy did not say anything, but he nodded 
his head slowly, dumped all his toys out in the 
road, and then motioned to Mrs. Pumpkin 
Eater and Debby to climb in the cart. When 
they were settled he jumped astride the 
wooden horse, chirruped to it, and they all 
started off, Billy’s pinafore flying out behind, 
and Debby and Mrs. Pumpkin Eater jolting 
along after. 

They felt quite squeezed in so small a cart, 
and it did jolt exceedingly. They were about 


1 12 The Horner Restaurant 


deciding they would better get out and walk 
the rest of the way, when the road ended 
abruptly in a little narrow lane, and they found 
themselves in a noisy, bustling crowd. 

Billy whoa’d his wooden horse. He helped 
Debby and Mrs. Pumpkin Eater to alight, and 
then started off down the road again without 
waiting to be thanked. Debby and Mrs. 
Pumpkin Eater pushed nearer the centre of 
the crowd in order to see what was happening. 

The centre of the crowd seemed to be a 
little man in a wig and eye glasses, who was 
waving his hand wildly about. At intervals 
he began digging up the turf with his cane, 
as if he had lost something. He wore a blue 
swallow-tailed coat, and, from the back pocket, 
there stuck out a large mouse-trap. By his 
side stood a broken wheelbarrow, which was 
being mended by a friendly wheelwright from 
the crowd, while the little man shouted, in a 
loud voice: 

“ When I was a bachelor, 

I lived by myself 

And all the bread and cheese I had 
I kept upon the shelf. 


The Horner Restaurant 113 

The rats and the mice 
They made such a strife, 

I had to go to London 
To fetch me a wife. 

The roads were so bad and 
The lanes were so narrow 
Oh, I had to bring my wife home 
In a wheelbarrow 

Here the people began nodding to each 
other and shaking their heads and repeating 
after him — in a wheelbarrow! ’’ 

But the little man went on in a shaking 
voice : 

“ ^The wheelbarrow broke! 

My wife had a fall, 

And down came wheelbarrow, 

Wife, and all!” 

Here all the people went down on their 
knees and began poking about in the turf, as 
if they, too, expected to find the little man’s 
wife somewhere under a pebble. 

But Mrs. Pumpkin Eater did the strangest 
thing. She let go of Debby’s hand, pushed 
aside the people on either side, and rushed up 
to the little man. 


II4 The Horner Restaurant 

“ I’m here, dear,” she cried, “ I’m here.” 

The little man dropped his cane in surprise. 
Then he picked up Mrs. Pumpkin Eater and 
dumped her into the wheelbarrow, which was 
quite mended now. He trundled her off gaily 
through the crowd, his mouse-trap rattling 
loudly as he went. 

Debby tried to run along after him and see 
where the wheelbarrow was going, but there 
were so many people, and she couldn’t possibly 
keep up. Before long, the wheelbarrow was 
out of sight, but Debby found herself standing 
in front of a tall, white building with pepper- 
mint stick columns in front. Over the door 
was hung the sign : 

“ If all the world were apple pie, 

And all the sea were ink, 

And all the trees were bread and cheese, 

What should we have for drink? ” 

Under the sign was painted in large letters: 
L. J. Horner, Restaurant. 

FRESH PIES EVERY FIVE MINUTES 

As Debby was trying to spell out the words 



He Trundled Her Off Gaily Through the Crowd 


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The Horner Restaurant 117 

she felt a tug at her elbow. Looking around, 
she saw a pompous little spaniel puppy stand- 
ing on his back legs beside her. He wore his 
hair and whiskers parted in the middle. He 
had on a black velvet suit, and starched white 
cuffs hung down over his paws. 

Say, ‘Whose dog art thou?’” said the 
spaniel. 

Debby repeated after the spaniel, “Whose 
dog art thou?” 

“Little Tommy Tucker’s dogi” said the 
spaniel, proudly, curtsying so low to Debby 
that his ears touched the sidewalk. “Bow, 
wow, wow!” 

Then he went on : “ Are you hungry, little 
girl?” 

“ I really think I am,” said Debby. 

“Will you do me the honour of lunching 
with me?” said the dog, offering his paw 
politely to Debby. 

“Yes, indeed,” said Debby, taking the span- 
iel’s paw. 

So they went together into the Horner Res- 
taurant, and sat down at one of the little tables 


1 1 8 The Horner Restaurant 


which were placed all around the room. It 
was such a funny, queer place. As soon as they 
were settled in their chairs, a large black rat in 
a long white apron came and stood behind 
Debby’s chair. 

“ Send over one of those coffee chaps,” said 
Mr. Bow Wow. 

There were any number of silver coffee urns 
running about the room, so the rat waiter hur- 
ried after one and turned its spout toward Mr. 
Bow Wow and Debby. The coffee urn was 
quickly followed by a cream pot and sugar 
bowl, both on legs. They circled about a great 
deal, and then filled the cups. 

“Two pies!” shouted Mr. Bow Wow. 

Immediately, the rat brought two steaming 
hot pies and set them down on the table. 

“ Does Mr. Horner bake all his pies? ” 
asked Debby, timidly, after she had eaten out 
the inside and come to the crust. 

“Oh, dear, no. Jack only tests them,” said 
Mr. Bow Wow. “There he is over in that 
corner.” 

Debby looked in the direction in which Mr. 


The Horner Restaurant 119 

Bow Wow pointed. There was a high chair 
in the corner, and in it sat a very fat baby. 
All around him were scores of waiters bring- 
ing in more steaming pies. As soon as the 
waiter handed him a pie, Little Jack Horner 
lifted up the crust and pulled out one plum, 
which he popped in his mouth. Then he 
would say: 

“What a big boy am I!’^ 

while the rat waiters would bow low and 
squeak: 

“ Little Jack Horner sat in a corner 
Eating a Christmas pie. 

He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum 
And said, * What a big boy am I ! ’ ” 

He looks very young to be owning a res- 
taurant,” said Debby. 

‘‘Why, he’s been here for years and years,” 
said Mr. Bow Wow. “The reason he looks 
so young” — Mr. Bow Wow put his paw to his 
mouth so no one would hear — “ is because he 
eats so much pie! ” 


120 The Horner Restaurant 

Then Mr. Bow Wow called out in a loud 
voice : 

“Waiter, waiter, fill the young lady’s 
crust.” 

So the waiter filled Debby’s pie crust again 
with sugary plums. 

A great many people were beginning to 
come in and seat themselves at the tables. The 
coffee urns were kept very busy, and two cream 
pots collided and spilled themselves all over 
the floor. One of the rat waiters dropped a 
tea tray, but Little Jack Horner went on test- 
ing pies every five minutes as if nothing had 
happened. 

Two little boys, who looked as much alike 
as two peas, came in and sat down. They be- 
gan hammering on the table with their forks, 
and one of them called out: 

“ Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man 
Bake me a cake as quick as you can. 

Pat it and prick it and mark it with T, 

And bring it in hot for Johnny and me.” 

“The one who is talking is Tommy Tittle- 
mouse,” said Mr. Bow Wow. “ See his string 


The Horner Restaurant 121 


of fishes? The other one is Johnny Pringle. 
Very bad mannered, both of them.” 

As he spoke, Tommy stopped hammering 
for a minute and leaned across the table, say- 
ing to Johnny: 

“ When I was a little boy, 

I washed my mammy’s dishes. 

I put my fingers in my eyes 
And pulled out golden fishes.” 

‘‘You couldn’t do it,” said Johnny. 

“I did,” said Tommy, but just then the 
waiter brought in two hot cakes, one marked 
T for Tommy, and one marked J for Johnny, 
and so the boys stopped quarrelling and began 
to eat. By this time Mr. Bow Wow had fin- 
ished all his lunch. He took such very large 
bites of pie, and he lapped his coffee so it did 
not last very long. Debby’s pie crust had been 
filled a number of times, but at last she could 
eat no more, and the black rat waiter brought 
a paper bill to Mr. Bow Wow. 

“Oh, have you any money?” cried Debby, 
in great alarm, as she felt in her apron pocket. 
“ I haven’t a cent.” 


122 The Horner Restaurant 

“Yes, indeed,” said Mr. Bow Wow, sniffing 
the air, “ I always have a s-cent and more, 
too.” He handed a copper groat to the rat. 
“Tommy Tucker gave me some money last 
night. We’re in the bark business, Tommy 
and 1.” 

Then Mr. Bow Wow pulled down his cuffs 
and straightened his front hair ready to go^ 
but Debby touched his paw. 

“Please, Mr. Bow Wow,” she said, “may 
we stay just a little while longer and see the 
people? ” 


CHAPTER XI 


ABOUT A NUMBER OF QUEER PEOPLE 

S O Debby and Mr. Bow Wow settled them- 
selves in their chairs to watch the queer, 
funny people in the Horner Restaurant. The 
door opened, and in walked a very fine, large 
cat, waving her tail in the air. She had a tall 
ruche about her neck, and she wore bells in 
her ears. As soon as she came in nearly every 
one in the restaurant stood up, and they all 
said: 

“ Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been ? 

Mistress Puss replied, with a toss of her 
head: 

“ To London, to see the Queen.” 

Then the people all said: 

“ Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there ? ” 

And Puss said, in answer: 

“ I frightened a little mouse under her chair 1 ” 


123 


124 A Number of Queer People 

Then every one clapped loudly. But Mr. 
Bow Wow’s paws began to quiver, his teeth 
opened and shut, and the hair on his head 
began to rise. Debby took hold of his tail un- 
der the table. 

‘‘Thank you. Miss,” said Mr. Bow Wow. 
“ I don’t mean to let my feelings get the better 
of me, but she’s a cat, you know.” 

Debby wanted to go over and ask Mistress 
Puss if it were the beautiful Queen of Hearts 
she had seen, but the cream pots had clustered 
around the cat so closely that no one else could 
get at all near. Just then, in ran three dear 
little white kittens, calling as loudly as they 
could mew: 

“ Oh, mother dear, see here, see here, 

See, we have found our mittens ! ” 

The kittens all wore red sashes tied in big 
bows over their furry backs, and their mittens, 
two pairs apiece, were hung from strings about 
their necks. When Mistress Puss saw them 
she pushed away the cream pots and said: 

“ Put on your mittens, you precious kittens. 

Then you shall have some pie.” 


A Number of Queer People 125 

She set the kittens all up at the table in high 
chairs and the waiter brought them three pies. 
They ate greedily for awhile, and then they 
all began to cry: 

“ Oh, mother dear, we greatly fear 
That we have soiled our mittens ! ” 

She should have known better than to let 
them put on mittens to eat with,’’ said Debby. 
‘‘ Of course they’d stick them in their pie.” 

But Mistress Puss was in a great rage. 

“ Soiled your mittens, you naughty kittens ! ” 
she said. 

“ Then you shall have no pie.” 

The little kittens began industriously scrub- 
bing at their paws with their little pink tongues 
and holding up the mittens in Mistress Puss’s 
face, crying: 

“ Oh, mother dear, see here, see here. 

See — we have washed our mittens.” 

But Mistress Puss would have nothing to do 
with them. 

“The cross old thing,” said Debby, as the 


126 A Number of Queer People 

three little kittens started for home again, 
looking very crestfallen. But just then the 
smallest rat waiter went skipping across the 
floor with his tea tray. Mistress Puss sniffed. 
Her hair began to rise, and she said in a low 
purr: 

I smell a rat close by ! ’* 

In a minute, she sprang and pounced on the 
little rat waiter. There was a great squeal- 
ing and she would have caught him but his 
long tail slipped through her paw. There 
was a tall chocolate clock standing in the cor- 
ner with its door open wide. The rat rushed 
over to it and climbed up the pendulum. 

The other waiters disappeared in a trice, 
and Mistress Puss went out the door with a 
last wave of her beautiful tail. 

“ He’ll come down when the clock strikes,” 
said Mr. Bow Wow. 

Yes, I remember,” said Debby. 

“ Dickery, dickery, dock, 

The mouse ran up the clock, 

The clock struck one, the mduse ran down, 

Dickery, dickery, dock.” 


A Number of Queer People 127 

When the excitement was over, Debby 
looked about her again. At the next table 
sat a long thin man and a short fat lady. They 
had ordered a large platter of roast goose, but 
there was nothing left save the much-picked 
drumsticks. 

“ Queer people, they,” said Mr. Bow Wow. 

“ Jack Sprat could eat no fat, 

His wife could eat no lean, 

And so betwixt the two 
They left the platter clean. 

“They say — ,” he leaned over and whis- 
pered to Debby, “that Jack Sprat has a very 
strange pig, something unusual about him. 

Jack Sprat had a pig who was not very little. 

Nor yet very big. 

He was not very lean nor yet very fat. 

‘ He’ll do for a grunt or a squeal ! ’ 

Said Jack Sprat.” 

As they were talking, the door opened and 
in came a precious little girl. She looked like 
a wide-opened pink rose from the crown of 
her head to her tiny pink slippers. She was 


128 A Number of Queer People 

all ruffles and bows and flying ribbons and she 
wore a big sun hat atop of her curls. 

She danced about on the tips of her toes and 
nodded this way and that, and she sat down 
in the middle of the room on a little stool 
which some one had run to fetch the minute 
she came in. She had a basket of flowers 
over her arm and she pulled out the daisies 
and began making chains. 

Tommy Tittlemouse edged over toward her 
and tried to sit on her stool. He began sing- 
ing to her: 

“ Curly Locks, Curly Locks, wilt thou be mine ? 

Thou shalt not wash dishes nor yet feed the swine, 
But sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam. 

And feed upon strawberries, sugar and cream.’^ 

But the little lady tossed her head and 
would have nothing to do with Tommy Tittle- 
mouse. The waiters crowded around her 
with trays of pies, and the sugar bowls flocked 
around, but the little girl shook her head at 
them all. 

“Just a bowl of curds and whey,” she said, 
“ if you please.” So they brought her a bowl 


A Number of Queer People 129 

of curds and whey, and she sat on her stool 
and ate daintily from the tip of a silver spoon. 

But just then a queer fellow came hopping 
in from the kitchen. He was so black and so 
round with such a large head atop of such a 
stubby little body that he looked precisely 
like a stew pan. Debby curled up her toes, 
and Mr. Bow Wow growled in disgust. 

“One of those scullery fellows! He 
shouldn’t be allowed up here. He’s all over 
grease! ” 

But the little fellow did not seem to mind. 
He was smiling all over his round, black face, 
and he balanced himself on his toes and 
trotted around from one table to another until 
he spied the little curds and whey lady. All 
at once, he looked more pleased than ever. 

He trotted over toward her, jumped up on 
the stool beside her and peered into her face. 
Up jumped the little girl, screaming: 

“ A spider, a spider! Oh, oh, oh! ” 

The curds and whey spilled on the floor, 
the stool tipped bottom side up, and the little 
girl ran as fast as her feet would carry her out 


^ 3 ^ A Number of Queer People 

of the door. The old black spider looked 
sadly after her for a minute, and then he trot- 
ted back to the kitchen again. 

Little Miss Muffet,” explained Mr. Bow 
Wow. She’s not very brave. You might 
make a story about that — 

“ Little Miss Mulfet sat on a tuffet 
Eating of curds and whey. 

Along came a spider who sat down beside her 

. And frightened Miss Muffet away.” 

‘ How very clever you are, Mr. Bow 
Wow,” said Debby. “ But it seems to me as 
if I have heard that story somewhere before.” 

It took a few minutes for the restaurant to 
quiet again, but presently a very jolly-looking 
little boy rushed in with a basket, bought some 
pies, and rushed out again with a hop, skip, 
and a jump. 

“ Handy Spandy, Jack-a-Dandy,” 
explained Mr. Bow Wow, 

“ Loves plum pies and sugar candy, 

He bought some at a grocer shop, 

And off he went hop, hop, hop.” 








A Number of Queer People 133 

Then a second little boy came in, but he 
looked so very sober. He was hunting about 
in all his pockets and turning them inside out, 
but they were all empty. 

Excuse me, little girl,” said Mr. Bow 
Wow; I think Pd better be going now. I’ve 
enjoyed your company very much, but that is 
my master. Tommy Tucker.” 

Mr. Bow Wow got quietly down from his 
chair and slipped under the table and went 
out hurriedly on all fours through the kitchen 
door. The little boy began talking aloud to 
himself — 

‘‘ I gave all the money to Bow Wow, and he 
said he’d be back directly with the rolls. 
He hasn’t come yet, and I had no tea last 
night.” 

Little Jack Horner was about putting a 
plum in his mouth, but he stopped midway 
and he said: 

Sing, Tommy Tucker.” 

Then all the waiters began saying: 

“ Little Tommy Tucker, sing for your supper. 

What will you sing for; white bread and butter? ” 


134 A Number of Queer People 

Tommy Tucker jumped up on one of the 
tables. He wiped his mouth carefully and 
then opened it wide, but he could not seem 
to sing. At last he put his hands in his 
pockets, made a great effort, and said: 

“Sing, sing! oh, what shall I sing?” 

Just then Tommy Tucker happened to look 
out of the window and he went on in the same 
tone: 

“ The cat’s running off with the pudding bag string.” 

And Mistress Puss peered in the door, her 
ruche all muddy and drabbled, but looking 
very pleased and naughty. In one paw she 
held the pudding bag string, and she waved it 
up high, and ran off down the road. 

Then every one in the Horner Restaurant 
save little Jack Horner, left, and they all ran 
after the cat and the pudding bag string. Jack 
Sprat led, with his wife puffing behind. 
Tommy Tucker followed with Johnny Prin- 
gle, and the rat waiters kept up at a safe dis- 
tance. Tommy Tittlemouse took Debby’s 
hand and she ran too. 


A Number of Queer People 135 

Past shops and houses, over ditches and 
walls, down lanes, and up hills they went with- 
out stopping to rest. People opened their 
windows to see, and the dogs barked at their 
heels, but they did not stop. The cat was in 
front with the pudding bag string, and she 
kept always a little ways ahead. 


CHAPTER XII 


ABOUT THE DOINGS AT BANBURY CROSS 

B ut I can’t ever keep up with you, 
Tommy,” said Debby, at last, panting. 
“ Where will the cat go? ” 

“Just like a girl,” said Tommy, without 
stopping at all, “ Never knew one yet who 
could run fast. She’ll just keep on a little 
farther and then she’ll go back to Jack 
Horner’s again. She doesn’t want that 
pudding bag string. All she wants is to be 
chased.” 

Then Tommy Tittlemouse took hold of 
Debby’s hand more tightly, and they ran a 
little faster than before. But at that moment 
the cat decided to turn a corner, and some of 
the people went in a different direction. 
Tommy and Debby found that they had gone 
the wrong way and were not running after the 
cat at all. 

“ Well, I am glad we’re lost,” said Debby, 
136 


The Doings at Banbury Cross 137 

dropping down on a bit of turf to rest. “ I 
never do believe in running after things you 
can’t catch, do you, Tommy? ” 

Oh, I don’t know,” said Tommy, “we 
might have caught her if you had run at all 
fast, little girl. By the way, what is your 
name? ” 

“ I think it’s Debby,” said the little earth- 
child, “ but I am not quite sure. I have been 
lost such a long time, you see. I’m looking 
for King Cole’s Palace; could you take me 
there. Tommy? ” 

Tommy shaded his eyes with his hands and 
looked up and down the road for a minute. 

“ I’ve heard of the place,” he said. “ I 
might try and find it.” 

He put his hand in his pocket and pulled 
out a fish line and reel. 

“ Oh! ” he cried in dismay; “ I’ve lost my 
fishes. I couldn’t wait, you know. I’ll have 
to catch some more.” 

Then Tommy Tittlemouse pulled his cap 
down over his eyes and ran off, leaving Debby 
all alone again. She watched him go. Then 


13S The Doings at Banbury Cross 

she stood up and began counting on her 
fingers : 

Thumbs, you’re Mistress Mary, only she 
was too busy to play. Forefinger, you’re 
little Dame Trot, only I ran away and left 
her. Middle finger, you’re Nancy Etticoat, 
only she went out. Ring finger, you’re Mr 
Bow Wow, only he ran away from me ; oh, he 
would have been so nice to play with.” She 
sighed a little bit. Then she held up the 
shortest finger of all, You’re Tommy Tittle- 
mouse,” with a little pout; “ all he thinks of is 
catching his old fishes, and nobody will stay 
with poor me at all.” 

But just then she saw a cloud of dust in the 
road and as it came nearer, she spied a caval- 
cade of hobby horses having only one leg 
apiece. Their heads were painted yellow 
with red and green spots all over. They 
hopped along as gaily as if they had four good 
legs apiece. Astride each hobby horse was a 
little boy or girl, and, as they passed by, they 
all waved their hands to Debby and called 
out: 


The Doings at Banbury Cross 139 

“ Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, 

To see a fine lady ride on a white horse. 

Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, 

She shall have music wherever she goes.” 

Near the end of the line came a little hobby 
horse with no rider. Just as if he knew I 
want to go, too,” said Debby. 

The hobby horse slowed a bit to let Debby 
jump on and take the reins in hand. At first 
he shied and was hard to manage. He had 
a way of balancing himself on his one leg and 
then whirling round about until it was very 
hard to keep one’s seat. Then, as Debby was 
quite sure she had him well in hand, he would 
play that he was afraid of a pebble in the 
road, and he would dash off to one side; but 
when he saw that the other cock horses were 
a long way ahead, he settled down and trot- 
ted off after them toward Banbury Cross. 

“ It must be a circus or a fair or something 
of that sort,” said Debby. “ I wish you could 
talk, dear, and tell me,” she went on, patting 
the hobby horse’s wooden neck, but he trotted 
along without saying anything. In a little 


HO The Doings at Banbury Cross 

while, a crowd of people on foot passed them 
by. A number of barking dogs were follow- 
ing at their heels, and one of the little boys 
who rode near Debby shouted back to her: 

“ Hark, hark, the dogs do bark. 

The beggars are coming to town. 

Some in rags and some in jags 
And some in velvet gowns.” 

Debby heard a tramp of feet and the shout 
of voices singing: 

“ See saw sacaradown. 

Which is the way to London town? 

One foot up and one foot down. 

That is the way to London town.” 

And a merry crowd of men in long red 
cloaks and powdered wigs tramped by sing- 
ing: 

“ The merchants of London they wear scarlet 
Silk in the collar and gold in the hem. 

So merrily march the merchant men.” 

Debby chirruped to the cock horse, and be- 
fore long they came to a queer little town 
where the roads were narrow and continually 


The Doings at Banbury Cross 141 

running into each other and across. The 
houses were set, some in the front yards, some 
in the back yards, and the fences often made 
the mistake of crossing the street so the cock 
horse had to jump over them. A little boy 
with a basket over his arm was going up and 
down the streets ringing a bell, and crying out: 

“ Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, 

One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns.” 

“ This must be Banbury Cross,” said Debby. 

She followed the crowd in front of her un- 
til they came to a field a little way farther on. 
In the centre of the field was a large white 
tent with lemon sticks for props. All the 
little girls and boys began getting off the cock 
horses and tying them to the fences. 

“Oh, it’s a circus!” said Debby. “ I’m so 
very glad I came.” 

She tied her cock horse to the fence, too, and 
started to look about. Every one seemed to 
be very busy and very happy. The merchants 
of London had all bought large scarlet and 
white candy canes and were going about 


1 42 The Doings at Banbury Cross 

swinging them proudly. There were a great 
many smaller tents and circus wagons stand- 
ing near. At one of the tents stood a beau- 
tiful white horse, and there was the cling, 
clang, cling of an anvil inside. The white 
horse was holding up one foot and all the 
little boys clustered around, crying out: 

“Is John Smith within?” 

And a voice inside answered: 

“ Aye, that he is.” 

Then all the little boys called out: 

“ Can he set a shoe? ” 

The same voice said in answer: 

“ Aye, marry, two ! ” 

“ Here a nail, there a nail, tit, tac, too.” 

So the beautiful white horse had a new shoe 
put on. 

The tents were all marked: 


Knock at the door, peep in. 
Lift the latch, walk in.” 



She Tied Her Cock Horse to the Fence 



The Doings at Banbury Cross i45 

Which was very nice when one had no 
money. In one tent, was the Wild Man look- 
ing very wild indeed, and his keeper was ex- 
plaining to every one in a loud voice : 

“ The Man in the Wilderness asked me, 

‘ How many strawberries grow in the sea? ’ 

I answered him as I thought good, 

‘ As many as red herrings grow in the wood.’ ” 

Next came the animal cages. In one sat 
the three bears in three chairs eating three 
bowls of steaming porridge. In another, were 
two cats scratching each other wildly and the 
cage was labelled: 

“ There once were two cats of Kilkenny. 

Each thought there was one cat too many. 

So they fought and they fit. 

And they scratched and they bit, 

’Till, excepting their nails and the tips of their tails, 
Instead of two cats, there weren’t any.” 

Nearby was an old gray wolf, and a small 
black pig in a frock coat paraded up and down 
in front of his cage, squeaking in a high voice 
to every one. 

He said: 


146 The Doings at Banbury Cross 

‘ I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in! ’ 

I said: 

‘ No, no, by the hair of my chinny, chinny, chin! ’ 

But the sound of music began to come from 
the large tent, so Debby left the animals and 
pushed her way inside. It was all quite like 
any circus tent, only the seats had lemon-stick 
props and marshmallow cushions, which were 
very comfortable to sit upon. Some guinea 
pigs in leather knee breeches were passing 
about fans and also glasses of lemonade in 
twisted peppermint-stick baskets. A large 
mouse in a white cap and long white coat was 
offering toys, going about from seat to seat 
and crying out: 

“ Smiling girls and rosy boys, 

Come and take my pretty toys. 

Sugar horses painted red. 

And monkeys made of gingerbread.” 

Debby took a fan, a glass of pink lemonade, 
and a gingerbread monkey. She was just 
settling herself to enjoy the circus, when she 


The Doings at Banbury Cross i47 

heard a little apologetic sneeze nearby. Look- 
ing up, whom should she see but Pussy Cat 
Mew in a brand new ruff and red petticoat, 
sitting in the seat beside her and smiling from 
ear to ear. 

Oh, you precious Pussy Cat Mew! ” cried 
Debby, hugging her in delight, “ Pm so glad 
to see you. How did you happen to come? ” 

Pussy Cat Mew put her mouth up close to 
Debby’s ear. 

“ I must be back by tea time,” she said. 

Mrs. Cackle doesn’t know I’m here. The 
Pipers are away again. They’re buying 
furniture,” (Debby began squirming about in 
her seat), ‘‘and Dame Trot was hunting 
eggs,” went on Pussy Cat Mew. “ I went 
along the roofs and the back walls, and here 
I am,” she said, washing the tip of her tail 
carefully. 

“ Well, I am glad you came,” said Debby. 
“ How is poor Tom? ” 

“ They say,” said Pussy Cat Mew in a whis- 
per, “ that Tom travels with this circus. That’s 
why I came.” 


148 The Doings at Banbury Cross 

The tent was quite crowded now. The 
guinea pigs had a hard time getting about 
with the fans. One fell, squealing, in be- 
tween the seats, and he had to be pulled out by 
his tail. Some gingerbread men who seemed 
to travel with the circus came out and put up 
a ring in the middle of the tent. They drove 
in licorice posts and tied ropes of taffy all 
about and then sprinkled sugar on the ground. 
The music sounded louder, and the ginger- 
bread men returned with fiddles and drums 
and trumpets and cymbals. They all sat on 
a high platform in the middle of the ring and 
played furiously. Debby sat back in her seat 
to see what would happen next. 


CHAPTER XIII 


ABOUT SIMON THE CLOWN 

^"T^HE first thing to happen in the circus 
was the parade of little Indians. After 
a great deal of tooting and fiddling and 
drumming by the gingerbread men, one of 
them stood up and shouted : 

‘‘ John Brown had a little Indian, 

John Brown had a little Indian, 

One little Indian Boy. 

One little, two little, three little Indians; 

Four little, five little, six little Indians; 

Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians; 
Ten little Indian boys.” 


Then the tent flap swung wide, and in 
came the little Indians, all on ponies, and 
they galloped about and stood up in their sad- 
dles and shot arrows and then galloped out 
again. Then there was more music, and the 

gingerbread man called out: 

149 


1 50 About Simon the Clown 

“ The sole and only alphabet ; captured from 
the lost land of Primer.” 

I feel a trifle afraid,” said Debby to 
Pussy Cat Mew. “Will they ask me to 
read?” 

But before Pussy Cat Mew could say any- 
thing, in rolled a huge apple pie with a large 
A painted on his top crust. He turned over 
and over, and then flopped down bottom side 
up in the centre of the tent. In a second he 
was followed by a host of queer looking little 
men. 

“ Just like the letters on my blocks,” said 
Debby, “ only they have legs.” 

They all clustered about A who lay and 
flopped, while B took a bite of his crust; C cut 
him open; D began digging out the apple; 
E took a quarter and ran off with it to eat it; 
and the rest of the Alphabet cried and begged 
of each other for a piece, until there was not a 
crumb of poor A left. Then they all ran, 
belter, skelter, out of the tent. 

While this was going on, one of the guinea 
pigs went about from seat to seat, crying: 


About Simon the Clown 151 

“ Buttons a farthing a pair! 

Come, who will buy them of me? 

They’re round and sound and pretty, 

And fit for the girls of the city. 

Buttons, a farthing a pair! 

Come, who will buy them of me ? ” 

The buttons were made of tafify with a pic- 
ture upon the top of a lady riding upon a 
white horse. Pussy Cat Mew bought a pair 
and gave Debby one to pin on the front of her 
apron. Just then with a great flourish of fid- 
dles and ringing of bells, in rode the old lady 
herself. She was very spry in spite of being 
so old, and she wore a gay gown all covered 
with silver spangles. She stood up in her 
saddle and threw kisses to every one, and her 
fingers were all covered with rings. The 
beautiful white horse danced and kneeled 
down, he rolled over, he jumped through a 
hoop, and, wherever he went there was a 
pretty sound of bells; for the old lady wore 
them hung to her toes, even. The merchants 
of London clapped their hands and stood up 
and waved their canes, but at last the old lady 
rode out and would not come back again. 


152 About Simon the Clown 

The gingerbread man stood up once more 
and shouted: 

“The wonderful acrobat and tumbler of 
Gooseland will now appear, Mr. Humpty 
Dumpty.” 

The people stamped their feet and clapped. 
Then they waited a long time, but Mr. 
Humpty Dumpty did not appear. There was 
all at once a loud crash and a bang and then 
silence. 

“ It sounds as if some one had broken the 
tea things,” said Debby to Pussy Cat Mew. 
The merchants of London went out to see 
what was the matter, and there was a sound of 
more cracking and scraping. At last one of 
the guinea pigs poked his head through the 
door and said in a sad voice : 

“ Humpty Dumpty climbed up the wall, 

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men 
Cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.” 

Then the guinea pig wiped his eyes with 
his paw and drew his head back again. The 
accident to Mr. Humpty Dumpty made 


About Simon the Clown 153 

every one a little sad, but before long the gin- 
gerbread man called out, Simon,” and in 
tumbled the clown. He was dressed in a gay 
green striped suit and yellow peaked cap. He 
looked very round and very jolly, and he was 
just about to start performing his tricks when 
there was a far-away sound of pipes and 
some one singing: 

Over the hills, oh, over the hills.” 

Pussy Cat Mew leaped over the seats cry- 
ing: 

“ It’s Tommy Piper! ” and Debby began to 
feel the queerest twitching in her toes. It 
did not seem at all strange that she should 
jump down from her seat and begin dancing, 
for every one else was doing the same thing. 
She had a glimpse of Pussy Cat Mew hop- 
ping around with a little boy in a white collar 
and blue breeches, who was playing a pipe. 
Then the circus ring became very crowded 
with so many people dancing, and she could 
see the little Indians, the Alphabet, the mer- 
chants of London, the guinea pigs and the 


1 54 About Simon the Clown 

gingerbread men all laughing and whirling 
about while Tom played, “Over the Hills 
and Far Away.’’ 

Debby was dancing so fast herself that she 
could scarcely see how Tom looked. At last 
the crowd was too great for the tent, and they 
all pushed along, dancing, until Debby found 
herself out in the field again where they began 
whirling as madly as ever. Round and 
round they went, until Debby could dance no 
longer. She saw Tom and Pussy Cat Mew 
leading the people out of the field and down 
the road. She was just about to jump up and 
follow them, when she thought of the little 
hobby horse tied to the fence. She ran to 
unhitch him, but, oh, the hobby horse was 
not there, nor were any of the others. 

“ He’s run away!” said Debby in despair. 
“ Now, how am I going to ride away from this 
place? ” 

“Ride?” said a voice close to her elbow. 
“ Ride a cow, of course.” 

Debby looked around, and there stood 
Simon the clown in his gay green suit, look- 


About Simon the Clown 155 

ing very odd, but so good-natured that she 
could not help being glad to see him. 

There’s a spotted cow yonder,” said 
Simon. I’ll bring her over for you 
directly.” 

Yes, there was a cow in the next field, 
quietly grazing with her little calf by her side. 
Simon went over to her and jumped on her 
back, but the cow quite suddenly tossed her 
horns and cantered off, leaving Simon sitting 
on the ground. 

^^Oh, did you hurt you?” cried Debby, 
running over to him, but Simon looked at her 
a minute without answering. Then he pointed 
to a brown bird sitting on a green branch 
close by. 

“ Watch me catch him for you,” he said. 
“ I’ll put salt on his tail.” 

But the bird did not wait and flew gaily off, 
singing, pee-wee, pee-wee! while Simon was 
looking in the grass for salt. 

“His nest is up there,” said Simon in a 
hoarse whisper, pointing to the tree. “Want 
it?” 


15 ^ About Simon the Clown 

Debby had perched herself on the fence to 
see what queer thing the clown would do next. 

“ You couldn’t get it down, you know,” she 
said. 

Simon rubbed his hands together. Then 
he climbed carefully up the tree, but the 
branch broke and down he tumbled to the 
ground once more. 

“ Want some cherries? ” he said, as if noth- 
ing had happened. 

Debby was laughing too much to say yes, 
but Simon jumped up and ran off. Presently 
he came back, whistling, and twisting his 
fingers about. 

I thought they grew on thistles,” he said ; 
and in the same breath, Where did you come 
from, little girl?” 

“ I came part of the way with Tommy Tit- 
tlemouse,” began Debby; he’s a fisherman.” 

“ Speaking of fishes,” said Simon, I think 
I’ll catch a whale.” 

He trotted off to the circus tent, and came 
back with a little tin pail of water. He set 
the pail down on the ground, tied a pin to a 



""Do You Think You are Ever Going to Catch a 
Whale That Way?” 



About Simon the Clown 159 

piece of string which he pulled from his 
pocket, seated himself on a stone, and began 
to fish. 

“ Do you think you are going to ever catch 
a whale that way? ” said Debby. I think 
you are rather silly.” 

Look,” said Simon, without answering her, 
and pointing to the sky, “ there’s a wild duck. 
I’ll shoot him for you.” 

He picked up a round pebble and began 
making a sling-shot from his fish line, but, 
before it was finished, the duck flew out of 
sight through the sky. 

He wouldn’t stay,” said Simon, gazing 
sadly up into the sky ; then turning to Debby, 
he said : “ Could you catch a rabbit, little 
girl?” 

I never tried,” said Debby, trying to be 
polite. “ Could you, sir?” 

“They run around the streets here,” said 
Simon. “ Good-bye.” 

There was a goat browsing in the grass, and 
Simon jumped astride it, took hold of the 
horns, and cantered off, waving his cap to 


i6o About Simon the Clown 


Debby as he went out of sight. Debby sat on 
the fence and watched him. 

“ I wonder why he did such queer things,” 
she said to herself. And then all at once she 
began repeating: 

“ He went to ride a spotted cow 
That had a little calf. 

She threw him down upon the ground 
Which made the people laugh. 

“ He went to catch a dicky bird 
And thought he could not fail, 

Because he had a little salt 
To put upon its tail. 

“ He went to take a bird’s nest 
Was built upon a bough. 

The branch gave way and Simon fell, 

He never could tell how. 

“ Then Simple Simon went a-fishing 
For to catch a whale. 

But all the water that he had 
Was in his mother’s pail. 

“ He went to shoot a wild duck. 

The wild duck would not stay. 

Said Simon, ‘ I can’t hit him 
Because he will not stay.’ 


About Simon the Clown i6i 


“ Then Simple Simon went a-hunting 
For to catch a hare. 

He rode a goat about the streets 
To try to find one there.” 

“ I know, now,” she went on. “ He was the 
real Simple Simonl^* 


CHAPTER XIV 


ABOUT LITTLE BO PEEP 

S O Debby sat atop of the fence and watched 
and waited and kicked her heels, but 
Simple Simon did not come back. 

“ I suppose he is hunting about in those 
queer crooked streets to find a rabbit,” she 
said. 

“ I wonder where all the circus people are. 
I wonder where I am,” she went on, “ and I 
wonder if I shall ever find my dear fittle 
Princess again.” She sighed a bit. 

“ Pm going straight away to find her now,” 
she said, jumping down from the fence, and 
starting off in the direction of the circus tent 
again. But the grass in the field was quite 
tall, and the circus tent seemed a long way ofi. 
The daisies wore bobbing white bonnets about 
their nodding yellow heads, and they joined 
hands with the grasses and tried to trip up 
poor Debby, until it seemed as if they would 

162 


About Little Bo Peep 163 

never let her get anywhere at all. Though 
she pushed them aside with her hands and 
hurried on, the tent seemed always farther 
away than before. But, at last, after many 
tumbles, she did reach it. 

But the grass had grown up to her ears, and 
the circus tent looked altogether different. It 
was red now, instead of white, with a wide 
open door in front. On the top was a pole, 
and atop of the pole was a gold rooster, who 
was swinging this way and that as the wind 
blew him, flapping his wings, and crowing 
shrilly: 

“ Cock-a-doodle-doo, 

My dame has lost her shoe. 

My master’s lost his fiddle stick 
And can’t tell what to do.” 

And 

East, west, hame’s best.” 

‘‘ Why, it’s a barn with a live weather-cock 
on the top,” said Debby. 

Just then something seemed to be happening 
inside of the barn. There was a great scuttling 


164 About Little Bo Peep 

and scampering, the sound of some one squeal- 
ing, and a loud bleat. Debby peeped in the 
barn door to see what could be the matter, and 
out ran a little girl plump into Debby’s arms. 
She wore a gay flowered dimity gown that was 
tucked up all about her waist to show a red 
kirtle underneath. She had a wide hat with 
long streamers, and she carried a little shep- 
herd’s crook all twined about with coloured 
ribbons. She put her arms tight around 
Debby, and began laughing and crying all 
at once : 

“ There was a little girl went into a barn 
And lay down on some hay, 

A calf came out and smelt about, 

And the little girl ran away.’* 

“ Oh, don’t mind that,” said Debby. “ The 
calf wouldn’t have hurt you. I shouldn’t have 
let him, anyway, dear,” she went on, trying to 
stand a bit taller. 

The little girl seemed comforted, and she 
looked up at Debby and said: 

“ Oh, have you seen them? ” 


About Little Bo Peep 165 

“ Seen what? ” asked Debby. 

“Why, the tails,” said the little girl. “Oh, 
boo-hoo! ” and she began sobbing, “ they came 
back, but they left their tails behind them.” 

“ I don’t know what you mean,” said Debby. 
“Tell me all about it.” 

“ Oh, I took the sheep to the brook to drink,” 
said the little girl. “ Boo-hoo! and they ran 
away, and I hunted and hunted for them, but 
I couldn’t find them. I fell asleep in the grass 
and I dreamed I heard them, but I woke 
up again. And this morning I found them, 
but they hadn’t a tail! Oh, what shall I 
do?” 

“Why,” said Debby, “you’re 


“ Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep and couldn’t tell where 
to find them.” 


“Yes,” said the little girl, “every one said: 


“ ‘ Leave them alone and they’ll come home, dragging their 
tails behind them.’ 

But they didn’t.” 


1 66 About Little Bo Peep 

“ Yes,” said Debby: 

“ Little Bo Peep fell fast asleep 
And dreamed she heard them bleating. 

When she awoke, it was all a joke 
For still they were but fleeting.” 

And Little Bo Peep finished: 

“ Then up she took her little crook 
Determined for to find them. 

She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed. 
For they’d left their tails behind them, boo-hoo.” 

Just then a flock of woolly, white, toy lambs 
trotted out of the barn. They wore blue bows 
on their soft little necks, and they jostled and 
pushed each other and ran up to Little Bo 
Peep, saying, baa-baa! and kissing her 
fingers; but, alas, they had no tails! 

“ We must go and find their tails right 
away,” said Debby. ‘‘The poor things will 
certainly take cold.” 

“Oh, will you come and help me hunt?” 
said Little Bo Peep, smiling through her tears. 
So the two little girls put their arms about each 
other and started off, the sheep running on be- 


About Little Bo Peep 167 

hind, to look for the lost tails. The grass and 
buttercups and daisies bent their heads and 
made a wide path when they saw Little Bo 
Peep and her sheep coming, and Bo Peep 
seemed so happy to have Debby near that she 
danced gaily along, and waved her little crook, 
and sang as she went. 

Before long they turned into a lane, and 
they came upon a little boy trudging merrily 
along with a rake over his shoulder. Bo Peep 
called out to him : 

“ Willie boy, Willie boy, where are you going? 

May we go with you this sunshiny day? ” 

And the little boy nodded his head and said : 

“ Fm going to the meadows to see them a-mowing, 
Fm going to see them turn the new hay.” 

I really believe it is Chopnose Day,” said 
Bo Peep. 

“ On Chopnose Day the farmers rise, as every one sup- 
poses. 

And march upon the grass and flowers and cut off all 
their noses.” 

“ Doesn’t it hurt?” asked Debby. 


1 68 About Little Bo Peep 

“Oh, no,” said Little Bo Peep. “How 
could they grow any new noses, if the old ones 
weren’t cut off?” 

Debby felt of her own nose cautiously. 
“Well, I’d rather keep my old one,” she said. 

Just then they heard the swish, swish of 
scythes, and there, in a large meadow, were 
all the farmers cutting off the noses from the 
grass and daisies. Willie jumped over the wall 
and began turning the piles of hay, but Debby 
pulled Bo Peep’s hand. 

“ We mustn’t stop to play,” she said. “We 
must find those tails.” So they went on again. 

After a while they met an old black sheep, 
with a red shawl wrapped about her, walking 
slowly down the lane. She wore large gog- 
gles, and she carried three fat bags over her 
back. 

“ You know how to talk to her better than I 
do,” said Debby. “You ask her about the 
tails.” 

So Bo Peep bowed to the old black sheep, 
and said, in her sweetest voice: 

“ Baa-baa, black sheep, have you any wool? ” 


About Little Bo Peep 169 

The black sheep looked at them severely 
over her spectacles, and then she said, in a 
gruff voice : 

“ Yes, little Miss, I have three bags full. 

One for my master and one for my dame 
And one for the little boy who lives in the lane.” 

And the old black sheep pulled her shawl 
about her a little tighter, shouldered her bags, 
and went on again. 

“ How very cross she was,” said Debby. 
Oh, dear, do you suppose that she had all 
my tails in her bag? ” said Bo Peep. But the 
black sheep was out of sight now, and they did 
not like to run after her. 

Never mind, dear,” said Debby, “we’ll 
find them soon, I fancy.” 

Presently they came upon another meadow, 
with a corn field close by. Bo Peep’s sheep 
began frisking about, and they jumped the 
bars and ran into the meadow. 

Debby and Bo Peep chased after them to 
drive them out. Bo Peep calling as loudly as 
she could; 


17 ° About Little Bo Peep 

“ Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn ! 

The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn. 

Where’s the little boy who looks after the sheep ? ” 

But they came, all at once, upon a little boy 
lying under the shadow of a tall haystack. His 
hat had tumbled down over his eyes, and 
his little tin horn lay in the grass by his side. 
Debby tip-toed up to him and lifted up the 
rim of his hat, but his eyes were shut tight. 

“ He’s under the haystack,” 

she said, 

“Fast asleep!” 

Debby took up the tin horn and blew a tiny 
toot, but Boy Blue did not open his eyes. Then 
she took a wisp of hay and tickled his nose and 
his bare little toes, but still he did not open 
his eyes. 

“Come, Bo Peep,” she called at last, “you 
wake him.” Bo Peep was away off at the 
other end of the meadow with the toy sheep 
following after, and she called back; 

“ Go wake him, go wake him. Oh, no, not I. 

For if I wake him, he’ll certainly cry.” 



Little Boy Blue, Come Blow Your Horn! 



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About Little Bo Peep 173 

So Debby ran after Bo Peep and left Boy 
Blue asleep and the cows eating in the corn 
field. They all went along a little farther, and 
they came upon a green lea. There was a 
tiny house set upon it, covered over with rashes 
to keep out the rain. 

We’ll ask Bessie and Mary if they have 
found the tails,” said Bo Peep. Then she 
said to Debby: 

‘‘ Bessie Bell and Mary Gray 
They were two bonny lasses. 

They built their house upon a lea 
And covered it with rashes. 

“ Mary kept the bread and cheese, 

And Mary did the hoeing; 

Mary washed the pots and pans, 

And Bessie did the mowing.” 


They shortly came upon Bessie in a farmer’s 
smock, swinging a scythe. She was quite too 
busy to stop her mowing, and when Debby 
and Bo Peep asked her about the tails, she only 
shook her head and pointed to the house, 
saying: 


174 About Little Bo Peep 

“ My Maid Mary, she minds the dairy, 

While I go a-mowing and hoeing each morn. 

Gaily runs the reel and the little spinning wheel 
While I am mowing and hoeing my corn.” 

So Debby and Bo Peep hurried over to ask 
Mary if she had seen anything of the lost tails, 
but Maid Mary was busy churning, and she 
did not know where they were. Little Bo Peep 
was starting to cry a few tears again, but 
Debby put her arms about her and said, 
sturdily: 

“ They must be somewhere, you know, dear. 
Don’t cry. We’ll find them before night.” 

So they went on to the other side of the lea. 
There were two little boys in overalls and 
jumpers there, gathering apples. 

“ It’s Reuben and Robin,” said Bo Peep. 
Then she called out: 

“ Reuben, Robin, have you seen a flock of 
lost tails near by?” 

Reuben had climbed a tree and he was 
shaking down apples to Robin, but he said : 

“ No, not one.” 

When he saw how sad little Bo Peep felt. 


About Little Bo Peep 175 

he tossed down two beautiful red apples, and 
said: 

“Up in a green orchard there is a green tree, 

The finest of pippins that ever you see. 

The apples are ripe and ready to fall, 

And Reuben and Robin will gather them all.” 

But still the lost tails were nowhere to be 
found. 


CHAPTER XV 


ABOUT THE FINDING OF THE TAILS 
WAY off, down the lane, was something 



^ ^ that looked like a house, so Debby and 
Bo Peep and the toy sheep started along 
to ask the people inside if they had seen the 
lost tails. On their way through the lane they 
came to a brook running by, and Debby called : 

Oh, Bo Peep, Bo Peep, here they are. 
Here are your tails.” 

But when Bo Peep came up and leaned over 
the water and poked about with her crook, she 
said: 

“Why, dear, they’re nothing but cat tails. 
They won’t do at all.” 

So they went on and, when they reached the 
house, it was a little red schoolhouse, after all. 
It was full of children, all counting and spell- 
ing out loud, and the master was standing up 
in front and giving out the rules. He wore a 
dicky and a swallow-tailed coat, and he held 


The Finding of the Tails i77 

a long pointer in his hand. Debby and Bo 
Peep did not dare to go inside the schoolhonse, 
for the master looked very fierce indeed. They 
stood on their toes and peeped in the window, 
and saw all the little boys sitting on one high, 
hard bench, and all the little girls sitting on 
one high, hard bench, and all looking very 
much scared. The master began putting long 
sums on the blackboard very fast, and when 
any child missed a sum he would clap a 
pointed dunce cap on its head, and it was 
obliged to stand up in front. The line of 
dunces was growing much longer than the line 
on the benches. 

Debby watched a little boy who sat in the 
corner where the master did not see him. He 
was scribbling in large letters on his slate: 

“ Multiplication is vexation, 

Subtraction is as bad, 

The rule of three perplexes me, 

And fractions drive me mad.” 

“ That’s just the way I always felt about it,” 
said Debby, “ only I never could put it down 
so nicely.” 


17 ^ The Finding of the Tails 

Just then a little girl came running along 
the lane. Her stockings were losing off, her 
hair was frowzy, and her apron strings were 
untied. Behind her came a large white lamb, 
very much like Bo Peep’s toy sheep, only it 
wore a draggled red bow instead of a blue one, 
and its legs were more sprawling. The little 
girl did not see Debby and Bo Peep, she was 
in such a hurry, but she ran to the schoolhouse 
as fast as she could, opened the door, and hur- 
ried in, with the lamb following close at her 
heels. Then there arose such a hubbub! 

All the dunces took off their hats and began 
tossing them up in the air, and they ran in 
among the benches, so the master could not 
tell which were dunces and which were not. 
The little boys and girls stood up on the 
benches and danced and shouted. The master 
took the little girl severely by the apron strings 
and pointed to the clock, saying: 

“ A dillar, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar, 

What made you come so soon 
You used to come at ten o’clock, 

And now, you come at noon ! ” 


The Finding of the Tails 179 

The clock on the wall began to smile all 
over its solemn, round face, and it clapped its 
hands softly. The lamb tried to drink out of 
the water pail and tipped it over on the floor, 
and then he spilled the ink on the master’s 
desk, and began tossing the pens about. 

“ Oh,” Debby whispered to Bo Peep, 

Mary had a little lamb, 

Its fleece was white as snow, 

And everywhere that Mary went, 

The lamb was sure to go.” 

And Bo Peep whispered back: 

“ It followed her to school one day, 

That was against the rule. 

It made the children laugh and play 
To see a lamb in school.” 

But just then the master spied all the mischief 
the lamb had done ; the water on the floor, the 
ink trickling down, and he had spoiled several 
perfectly new quill pens. So the master opened 
the door wide, and drove the poor lamb out. 
He flourished his pointer and made all the 
children sit down on the benches again, and he 


i8o The Finding of the Tails 

put the tallest dunce cap of all on Mary’s head. 
The lamb sat himself down on the doorstep, 
looking very forlorn, and very wet and inky 
about his feet. 

“ I know what he’s waiting for,” said Debby. 


** And so the teacher turned him out, 
But still he lingered near, 

And waited patiently about 
’Till Mary should appear.” 


“ Poor little lamb,” said Bo Peep, dropping 
her crook and running up to him to pat his 
back and smooth out his red bow with her soft 
little fingers, “ and didn’t they want you in 
their old school? Oh,” she went on, “you 
have a tail, and my sheep have none! If you 
could only tell me where my lost tails are!” 

At that the lamb looked up at Bo Peep in 
a very knowing way, and winked one of his 
eyes. Then he gamboled off a little ways and 
came back again and began tugging at Bo 
Peep’s kirtle. 

“ I believe he knows where they are,” said 
Debby. 


The Finding of the Tails i8i 

So Bo Peep took up her crook, they called 
the toy sheep, who had been contentedly crop- 
ping grass all this time, and they started oflf 
after Mary’s lamb. He led them a wild chase 
through some scratchy blackberry bushes and 
over a marsh, where the sheep got all muddy 
and bedrabbed. Then they crossed a bit of 
woods, and they came out upon a little green 
pasture, all dotted about with wild apple trees. 
There was another little brook running 
through the pasture. Down by the edge of 
the brook they saw some one busily at work, 
bobbing up and down over the water. 

When they came closer they saw that it was 
the same old black sheep whom they had met 
in the lane, red shawl, large goggles, and all. 
Her three bags were spread out neatly on the 
ground near by, and she had a pile of some- 
thing white by her side. And the pile was 
made up of tails — nothing but tails — big tails 
and little tails, long tails and short tails, but 
all of them lambs’ tails! The old black sheep 
took up one tail at a time, tilted her goggles 
over her nose, and looked at it. 


1 82 The Finding of the Tails 

“ Fine wool, excellent wool,” she would say, 
“ ’tis a pity they are so dirty.” 

Then she dipped it carefully in the brook, 
and washed it, and rinsed it, and hung it on a 
wild apple tree to dry. The trees were quite 
covered with tails, flying in the breeze, and 
looking very white and clean. Mary’s little 
lamb cantered off in the direction of the 
schoolhouse again, but Bo Peep began danc- 
ing about and swinging her crook over her 
head. 

“ They’re my tails,” she cried. “ Where did 
you find them? You’re very good to wash 
them. Oh, oh, oh!” and she hopped up and 
down. “ It will be a task to put them on again, 
though,” she said, soberly. 

The old black sheep looked at Debby disap- 
provingly, and kept right on washing tails 
and hanging them up to dry, until they were 
all done. Then she slung her three bags over 
her shoulder and stalked off, without saying 
“baa,” even. Bo Peep began gathering tails 
in her arms as fast as she could. Then she 
pulled a pin cushion out of her pocket and 



When They Came Closer, They Saw That it was 
THE Same Old Black Sheep. 







h_ 1 



The Finding of the Tails 185 

raced after the sheep, trying to match each one 
to a tail and pin it on. 

“ It’s just like the story,” said Bo Peep: 

“ It happened one day as Bo Peep did stray 
Into a field hard by, 

There she espied their tails, side by side, 

All hung on the trees to dry. 

“ She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye. 

And ran over hill and dale-o. 

And tried what she could as a shepherdess should 
To pin to each sheep its tail-o! ” 

“ But she’s forgetting all about me,” she 
added. 

Yes, surely. Bo Peep was far away on the 
top of a hill, trying to catch a refractory sheep, 
who didn’t seem to care to be pinned to its 
tail. Down the other side she went, too busy 
and anxious to look back. The toy sheep ran 
after her, and they were soon out of sight, and 
Debby was left alone again. 

That seems to be the way they all do,” she 
said, “ you just get acquainted with them and 
off they go and leave you. Well, it won’t do 


1 86 The Finding of the Tails 

for me to stand still here. It’s growing late. 
I wonder where I’m going to sleep to-night? ” 

Debby started bravely off through the 
meadow. Far away she could hear the swish, 
swish of the farmers’ scythes, but they were a 
long way off. Then she heard the shout of the 
children on their way home from school, but, 
although she tried hard to hurry, she could 
not reach the children or the farmers. She 
crossed and recrossed the meadow, but even 
the little brook had run away. The grass 
seemed to have grown short and stubby. At 
last it stood in clumps, and, in between, there 
was white sand, and shiny pebbles were lying 
about. Everything changed to dusk, and 
Debby could hear a steady swash, swash, like 
the water at the beach when it beats the shore. 
Very suddenly she walked right up against 
something big and brown and hard and high. 

Debby rubbed her elbows and knees, for she 
had bumped them hard, and she looked up to 
see where she was. 

“ Perhaps it’s a house,” she said, “ but I’m 
sure it is a very queer shape. And it’s set in 


The Finding of the Tails 187 

a very queer place, for you can’t help walking 
* into it.” 

The house was very queer. It was long 
and low at one end, until it tapered off close 
to the ground, and the other end was high and 
set up on a platform. The windows, instead 
of being scattered around, were set in a row 
from the cellar up to the roof, and the door 
was round. 

“ Why, it’s a shoe,” said Debby, after look- 
ing at it from all sides. 

Yes, it certainly was a shoe. It stood firmly 
with its heel on the beach and its toe jutting 
out over the sea. The chimney was puffing 
away, and little glints of light came out 
through the button-holes. The door was a 
large patch sewed onto the side. Debby looked 
at the queer thing. Some one on the inside 
began putting the buttons through the button- 
holes, starting with the bottom and going on 
up, until very little light showed. 

“ I’m not sure that I want to go in that 
place,” said Debby, “but Willie Winkie 
might be about, for it’s quite late. And there’s 


1 88 The Finding of the Tails 

the beadle, he might catch me out here in the 
dark. I will knock on the patch.” 

So she tried very hard to be brave, and she 
gave a tiny knock at the door of the shoe, but 
no one answered. Then Debby knocked a lit- 
tle louder and kicked with her stubby boot. 
There was a sound of moving about inside the 
shoe, a rattling of the latch, and the door flew 
open wide. 


CHAPTER XVI 


ABOUT A NIGHT’S LODGING 
T first Debby could scarcely see, because 



^ ^ the door had opened very quickly, and 
it was very bright inside and cheerful look- 
ing. When her eyes were more used to 
the light, she saw a small person in a cap and 
’kerchief standing in the door, holding a lan- 
tern in her hand, and peering out into the 
darkness. 

Who’s there, who’s knocking?” said the 
small person. 

If you please, ma’am,” said Debby, in a 
frightened little voice, “ it’s I. I’m Debby, 
and I want a place to sleep for the night. It’s 
very dark, and I’m all alone.” 

The small person set down her lantern on 
the sole of the shoe, which served very well 
for a floor, and she began counting on her 
fingers. When there were no more fingers to 
count on, she began on the hooks of her gown, 


19 ° About a Night’s Lodging 

and went straight down from the neck to the 
hem. 

“One, two, three, four, five — eleven — 
eighteen — twenty- five — and you will make 
twenty-six; and only fifteen cribs and two 
beds.” She began to look a little worried, 
but she picked up her lantern again and peered 
into Debby’s face. 

“ Come right in,” she said, “ there’s plenty 
of room. We were almost buttoned in for the 
night; but come right in.” 

Debby slipped through the hole which 
served for a doorway, the small person shut 
the patch with a bang, and there they were, 
inside the shoe. 

It was very noisy and crowded all about. 
There was a long table set in the middle of the 
shoe. Up and down the table were rows and 
rows of china bowls and mugs marked with 
names. All the A’s, like Anastasia and 
Amoreck and Arabella, and all the B’s, like 
Belinda and Benjamin and Betsy, and all the 
C’s, like Calista and Cleopatra and Charles, 
and all the D’s, like David and Dorothy and 


About a Night’s Lodging 191 

Darius, were put side by side, so the old 
woman who lived in the shoe could tell which 
was which ; for they were all her children who 
sat around the table. 

They were every size and age. Some wore 
curls and some wore pigtails, some wore 
dresses, some wore trousers, some were babies 
and some were quite old, but they were all 
trying to put on calico bibs, and they were all 
pounding on the table with tin spoons, and 
crying: 

“ Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, 

Pease porridge in the pot nine days old.” 


“ I want it hot,” said David. 

“ I want it cold,” said Calista. 

“ I want it in the pot nine days old,” cried 
Betsy. 

They’re very bad mannered,” said the old 
woman, smoothing out her apron and putting 
her fingers in her ears. 

“ Ssh, ssh, I say! But you see there are so 
many of them, and it keeps me busy feeding 
them. Oh, I wish you would,” she said, as 


192 About a Night’s Lodging 

Debby began tying the smallest baby’s bib, 
“the porridge is burning.” 

Debby began with the head of the table. It 
was nearly as much fun as a whole family of 
dolls, except that the children did not behave 
so well. As soon as a baby was neatly settled 
with its bib neatly tied, one of the little boys 
would run around and untie it. Then the baby 
would pound the next baby with the spoons, 
and then there would be two babies crying. 

“ Calista, you should be ashamed of your- 
self,” said Debby at last; after she had tied 
Calista’s bib twice, and Calista had untied it 
and made it into a ball and hit Benjamin’s 
nose with it, and Benjamin was howling. 

“ I’ll tell your mother, I will,” she went on. 
But the old woman who lived in the shoe 
was away off in the heel, which served for the 
kitchen, stirring porridge, .and she did not 
pay the slightest attention to anything else. 

“ Please sit down and fold your hands, and 
keep your spoons still,” said Debby, after she 
had picked up Calista from under a pile of 
high chairs. 


About a Night’s Lodging 193 

“You’re all very naughty. Grandmother 
dear would say, ‘ Birds in their little nests 
agree,’ — but that won’t do here,” she said. 
“ Birds in their little shoes — but birds don’t 
wear shoes. Oh, if you don’t keep still ” — the 
spoons and mugs were banging more than ever 
— “ I’ll tell Willie Winkie, I will!” 

Very suddenly all the noise stopped, and the 
spoons were laid quietly down on the table. 
Even the babies sat up straight, and they all 
waited patiently with their hands folded for 
the supper. It was most exciting to serve the 
porridge, for the old woman had only one 
ladle with a hole in it, and as fast as the mid- 
dle bowls were filled the first ones would be 
empty, so some of the children had two serv- 
ings, and it seemed as if some would have 
none. But at last each child had eaten its 
supper. 

Then the old woman went over to the toe 
of the shoe, which was so long and deep and 
dark that it looked like an attic, and she let 
down a great many beds which were hung up 
to the wall on hooks. None of the children 


194 About a Night’s Lodging 

seemed able to undress themselves, so Debby 
began on the boots, while the old woman did 
the babies. But as fast as Debby untied the 
lacings they knotted themselves into bows 
again. The buttons on the aprons buttoned 
themselves as fast as she undid them, and she 
would have given up trying, but the old 
woman kept saying: 

Thank you, thank you. It is such a help! 
Some nights it is morning before I get the last 
one in bed. I am so much obliged.” 

Debby wondered to herself how night could 
ever be morning, and presently the undress- 
ing became a little easier, the last boot was 
off and the last nightgown on. Each child 
scrambled into the nearest crib, Debby tucked 
in the baby’s little pink toes, and then the old 
woman went around to each crib and kissed 
each child, although it took a very long 
time. 

Then she went back to the kitchen and began 
mixing more porridge in the pot for break- 
fast. 

Debby followed after her. “ Are you the 


About a Night’s Lodging 195 

real old woman who lived in the shoe?” she 
asked timidly. 

“Yes,” said the old woman, stirring away 
busily at the porridge pot, 

I have so many children I don’t know what to do. 

I give them some porridge and plenty of bread, 

I kiss them all round and put them to bed.” 

She did not seem to care about saying any- 
thing else, so Debby looked around for a place 
to sleep. Her feet ached from walking so far 
with Little Bo Peep. Her fingers were sore 
because of all the boots and buttons she had 
undone, but the beds seemed all to be quite 
full. 

There was a little room at the foot of Cleo- 
patra’s crib, so Debby took off her apron 
and put it on again wrong side out for a night- 
gown, and crept in beside Cleopatra. 

Outside, the sea was swash, swashing against 
the toe of the shoe, and rocking it a little bit. 
Debby watched the old woman stirring, and 
listened to the porridge as it bubbled away. 
Then she saw the old woman come over to 


196 About a Night’s Lodging 

the toe, climb up a step ladder, and put one of 
the big buttons in a buttonhole window to 
keep out the wind — ^and then Debby was fast 
asleep. 

She slept all night and woke up very early 
in the morning. She rubbed her eyes to try 
and think where she was, and then she remem- 
bered. The old woman who lived in the shoe 
was fast asleep by the fire. 

“ The porridge must be very cold,” said 
Debby, creeping out of bed and over to peep 
in the pot, for the fire’s out.” 

She shook the old woman a little bit, but 
she could not rouse her. All the children 
were sleeping very soundly, too. 

“ Perhaps they won’t wake up for nine 
days,” said Debby. “ If that’s the way they 
like their porridge.” 

She looked around at the little stockings 
and bibs and aprons. 

“ I guess I won’t wait to dress them, to-day, 
it would take so long,” she said, “ and I must 
start out again to find the little Princess.” 



“Oh, It's a Ship," 


She Cried 









About a Night’s Lodging 199 

She went over and kissed a few of the 
babies. 

“ Good-bye, dears, until next time,” she 
said. Then she opened the door and went 
softly outside. 

There was nothing at all to be seen outside 
but a long beach and a wide blue sea. A few 
fish sat about upon the beach combing out 
their fins. A large old dolphin was making 
eyes at a little cuttle fish and muttering to 
himself: 

Wash me and dress me, 

And lay me down softly, 

And set me on a bank to dry, 

That I may look pretty when some one goes by.’* 

But as soon as they saw Debby, plump ! they 
all went down into the water leaving only 
little ripples behind them. Debby sat down 
on the beach and began building castles in 
the sand, but as soon as she finished one nicely, 
with a neat wall of shells all about, the waves 
came up and took it out to sea, so she soon 
stopped that. She ran up and down the 
beach trying to find a path, but as far as she 


200 About a Night’s Lodging 

could see there was nothing but sand and 
water. 

I’m farther and farther away from King 
Cole’s palace, I’m afraid,” she said. “ And 
the little Princess will wonder where I am. I 
shall need a ship to go away from this place. 
I’m thinking,” she went on. 

As she spoke she saw, away off at the end of 
the sea, a white speck. It came near and then 
nearer, looking quite large when it rode on 
the top of a wave, and very small when it went 
down again. Presently Debby could see tall 
masts and yellow sails and some one walking 
about on deck. 

“Oh, it’s a ship,” she cried. “This way; 
this way! ” 

She took off her apron and ran down to the 
edge of the beach waving it high for a flag. 
The ship came nearer and nearer and the 
captain must have seen her for he steered 
straight toward Debby. 


CHAPTER XVII 

ABOUT SOME SHIPS 

TT was a fine-looking ship, but it seemed a 
long time to wait until it reached the 
shore. There were wide yellow sails spread 
out to catch the wind, and they fluttered and 
rustled because they were made of yellow 
silk. The tall masts that held the sails shone 
and glittered in the sunshine. 

“ They’re really gold,” Debby cried. 

And as the ship sailed nearer, she heard a 
great rattling of chains and she saw a number 
of little white sailors running about the deck, 
sorting out parcels, and polishing the masts, 
and climbing up to furl the sails. Then the 
captain came up on deck from out of the 
cabin, looking very gay indeed in a blue navy 
cape with gold buttons, a blue sailor’s cap, a 
pair of large flat yellow shoes, a packet on his 
back and some marine glasses under one wing, 
which he pointed at Debby. 


201 


202 About Some Ships 

“ How very strange his arms look,” Debby 
said. “Why, I really believe they’re wings! 
And he has such a long nose and such very 
wide feet ; why, he’s a duck, for he’s web-footed 
and he has a bill! ” 

Just then the ship came rolling up to the 
shore, the sailors threw out an anchor, and 
the captain flapped his wings, flew over the 
side of the ship, and began bowing up and 
down in front of Debby on the beach, saying, 
“ Quack, quack.” 

He looked very jolly and fat, and Debby 
was not in the least afraid of him, though he 
was an unusually large duck. He turned to 
the sailors, who were a quantity of small white 
mice, and he began giving them orders about 
landing the cargo. They started running into 
the cabin and into the hold, and then scamper- 
ing down the side of the ship and swimming 
ashore with all manner of quaint and pretty 
things. 

And all the things they laid at Debby’s 
feet until she could scarcely move. 

There were rolls of gay silks and ribbons 


About Some Ships 203 

and red love apples and boxes and boxes of 
fruits all made of candy. 

“ I never can eat them all,” said Debby; 
and w^hen she tried to thank the captain, he 
only bowed up and down more and more and 
said “ Quack,” right in Debby’s face. At 
last the ship was emptied, and all the little 
mice sailors came ashore and sat down in a 
circle on the beach with their long tails curled 
around them, and they twirled their whiskers 
and washed their faces while the duck captain 
waddled up and down the shore. Debby sat 
down on a pile of silks, and said to herself: 

“ I saw a ship a-sailing, 

A-sailing on the sea, 

And, oh, it was all laden 
With pretty things for me. 

There were comfits in the cabin 
And apples in the hold ; 

The sails were made of silk 
And the masts were made of gold. 

The four and twenty sailors 
Who stood upon the deck 
Were four and twenty white mice 
With chains about their necks. 


204 About Some Ships 

The captain was a duck 
With a packet on his back, 

And when the ship had come to shore, 

The captain said, * Quack, quack ! ^ 

“ Yes, it all happened just like that.” 

She opened the boxes of comfits and un- 
rolled the pretty parcels, but after she had 
tied on five different kinds of hair ribbons, 
and had spread the silks out on the beach to 
choose the gayest ones; when she had sampled 
^all the boxes of comfits, and eaten a great 
many love apples, she began to grow tired of 
the things. She ran up to the captain who was 
gazing out to sea with one wing over his eyes. 
She stood up on her tip toes, for he was such a 
very tall duck, and she shouted in his ear: 

“ Will you take me sailing, please? I want 
to go to King Cole’s Palace somewhere in 
Gooseland. Do you know the place?” 

The captain only opened his large yellow 
bill and said “ Quack, quack,” but he wad- 
dled over to the sailors, poked some who had 
fallen asleep, and they all scampered down 
over the sand and swam out to the ship again. 


About Some Ships 205 

I shall certainly wet my feet if I go 
aboard here,” said Debby. 

The captain seemed to understand that she 
couldn’t swim. He spread his wide wings, 
put one fast about Debby’s waist, flapped the 
other, and paddled out to sea. Debby squealed 
^‘Oh, oh!” but the captain’s cape kept her 
quite dry. They came to the ship and scram- 
bled up, safe, inside. 

Then there was a great scuttling and hur- 
rying and scampering among the mice sailors. 
The anchor creaked, the sails were unfurled, 
the ship began to rock on the waves, and then 
it put slowly out to sea. 

It’s a pity to leave all those nice things on 
the beach,” said Debby, as they passed the 
apples and the silks and the comfits, but I 
hope that Calista and Cleopatra and Benjamin 
and all the rest will find them when they wake 
up.” 

She watched the old shoe standing so big 
and brown on the beach, but no smoke came 
from the chimney and the patch door was shut 
tight, and not a window was unbuttoned. 


2o6 About Some Ships 

After awhile, Debby could not see the old 
shoe, even, nothing but blue sea all about. 
The duck captain had hurried down to the 
cabin as soon as the ship started, and Debby 
could hear him busily cracking and munching 
corn. She curled her toes up under her — for 
it was not very pleasant to have so many mice 
all around — and sat on the deck watching, 
while the ship sailed and sailed. 

There was no one to talk to, and nothing to 
see but the waves, and nothing to hear but the 
swash, swash of the water. Debby peeped in 
the cabin door after awhile, and the captain 
was asleep, standing on one foot with his head 
tucked under his wing and his cap cocked over 
one eye. 

I don’t believe he knows where he is go- 
ing,” said Debby, “ and nobody’s steering. I 
wish I hadn’t come.” 

But just as she spoke, there was a scraping 
on the side of the ship and she ran to the edge 
of the deck and leaned over to see what was 
going by. There, in the open sea, was a little 
red washtub, bottom side up, with three fat 



There, in the Open Sea, was a Little Red 
Washtub 






About Some Ships 209 

little men clinging to the sides. They were 
wet, and their mouths were full of salt water, 
but they were chuckling away merrily, and 
presently the washtub righted itself and the 
three little men scrambled inside. There 
was not much room for so many and their feet 
hung over the side, but they seemed not to 
mind it in the least. One of the little men 
began munching a very wet currant bun which 
he pulled from his pocket; one held a large 
candlestick which he was trying to light, and 
the third stood up in the tub and waved a leg 
of mutton at Debby, shouting cheerily as they 
all sailed out of sight : 

“ Rub-a-dub-dub, 

Three men in a tub! 

And who do you think they be? 

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, 

And all of them gone to sea.” 

No sooner had this strange craft gone by 
than a blue china bowl hove in view with 
three old men in tall hats sitting in it. One 
was paddling fast with a tin spoon; one was 
trying to steer with an egg-beater, and one was 


210 About Some Ships 

reading aloud from a thick cook book. But 
the bowl was not easy to steer. 

“Oh, please look out! Do be careful,” 
cried Debby as the three old men came 
straight toward the ship, but they did not seem 
to hear. The bowl crashed into the ship and 
broke into a thousand pieces! 

“ They’ll certainly be drowned,” cried 
Debby, putting her hands over her eyes. “ Oh, 
dear! ” 

But the three old men appeared from under 
a wave, gaily riding on the crest, and they all 
began swimming as fast as possible, not seem- 
ing troubled at all. As they all swam away, 
the old man with the egg-beater called back 
to Debby : 

“ Three wise men of Gotham 
Went to sea in a bowl. 

If the bowl had been stronger, 

My tale had been longer.” 

“ Well I’m glad I’m in a proper boat,” said 
Debby. “Tubs and bowls are not at all 
safe.” 


About Some Ships 21 1 

They sailed and sailed a long way farther 
on. At last another boat came in sight, not 
much bigger than a toy launch, steaming along 
through the sea. Painted in gold letters on 
the side was the name, B. Shaftoe, and it said, 
Bobby in gold letters on a blue silk flag that 
floated from the highest mast. 

A very little boy stood at the wheel, steering. 
He had long yellow curls which he smoothed 
occasionally, and he wore a velvet suit with 
buckles at the knee. As soon as he spied 
Debby, he took off his cap and waved it to her. 
Debby smiled and waved back, and the little 
boy threw her a kiss from the tips of his 
fingers. 

Can you come aboard?” called Debby, 
making a trumpet of her hands, but the little 
boy shook his head sadly and pointed out to 
sea. Then he pulled a jackknife out of his 
pocket and cut ofif one of his silver buckles. 
He leaned far over the wheel and tossed it up 
into Debby’s lap, blew her another kiss, and 
steamed out of sight. Debby watched him. 
Then she looked at the shining little buckle. 


212 


About Some Ships 

“ I wonder who he was,” she said, but the 
wind blew the silk flag out far so she could 
read the gold letters again. 

“ I know now,” she said; 

“ Bobby Shaftoe’s gone to sea, 

Silver buckles on his knee, 

He’ll come back and marry me — 

Pretty Bobby Shaftoe. 

“ Bobby Shaftoe’s fat and fair. 

Combing out his yellow hair, 

Silk and velvet doth he wear — 

Pretty Bobby Shaftoe ! ” 

Oh, I wish he’d come back,” she said. 

But by this time the water was so shallow 
that Debby could see the white shells at the 
bottom of the sea. There was some land in 
sight, too, and although the wind was blowing 
the ship wherever it liked, they were certainly 
coming nearer the shore. All one could see 
was a great number of trees, and when the ship 
grated up against the shore at last, there was 
not a house in sight anywhere. 

I don’t care, though,” said Debby, “ it’s 


About Some Ships 213 

safer to be on land than sailing with a sleepy 
duck and a quantity of mice.’’ 

So she swung herself over the side of the 
ship, and jumped down to the ground. 

At once there was a great hubbub aboard 
the ship. The captain came up on deck, flap- 
ping his wings and crying, ‘‘ Quack, quack,” 
louder than before. The four and twenty 
white mice began to squeak shrilly, but Debby 
paid no attention to them. She put her fingers 
in her ears and started into the woods as fast 
as she could go. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


ABOUT MOTHER GOOSE 

D eeper and deeper she went into the 
woods, until there was nothing to be seen 
save tall trees all about, and she could not 
hear the sea, even. Presently she sat down 
on a log to try and decide which way to go. 
She spied a little ladybug walking along 
daintily over the moss and leaves on the 
ground, holding her skirts up carefully 
as she went, and putting on a pair of kid 
gloves. Debby got down on her knees to 
speak to the ladybug, because there seemed 
to be no one else near to ask, and she said: 

Please, ma’am, can you tell me the way to 
King Cole’s Palace? 

The lady bug went on straightening and 
buttoning her gloves and then she remarked in 
a wee voice : 

“ As I was going to Bonner, 

I met a pig without a wig, 

Upon my word and honour! ** 

214 


About Mother Goose 215 

“ That’s nothing but nonsense,” said Debby, 
a little crossly, because she wanted so much to 
find her way and no one would tell her. “ Pigs 
don’t wear wigs.” 

“ Oh, yes, they should when they’re dressed, 
you know,” said the ladybug, placidly. 

“ Well, I don’t believe it,” said Debby. 

“ Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, 

Your house is on fire, your children will burn! ” 

“ My house on fire, my children burning! ” 
cried the ladybug, hurrying off so fast that she 
dropped one of the gloves in her haste. 

I suppose that was very naughty for me to 
say,” said Debby, after the ladybug had gone, 
“ but she’ll find the children quite safe when 
she gets there.” 

She picked up the ladybug’s kid glove and 
tried to put it on, but it would not fit over her 
little finger even, and, just then, she heard a 
crunch, crunch of steps in the leaves behind 
her. 

“ Perhaps that’s the pig,” she said to her- 
self, and sure enough, it was! He was a small 


21 6 About Mother Goose 

brown pig and he was hurrying along through 
the woods, poking his nose about among the 
leaves and shedding large gravy tears as he 
went. When he came nearer, Debby saw 
that he was a little roast pig, for the dressing 
was sticking out of his back, his tail and ears 
were a crispy brown, and he carried a large 
boiled carrot in his mouth. 

What is the matter? ” asked Debby, going 
up to him. 

“ Tumbled down,” said the roast pig thickly 
through his carrot; “lost out an eye.” 

“What kind of an eye was it, sir? ” Debby 
asked. 

“ Roast chestnut! ” said the pig sorrowfully. 

Debby got down and began hunting about 
on the ground, too. She dug under the moss 
and turned over the leaves until she came upon 
a fat roasted chestnut. When she showed it to 
the pig, he began dancing about on two feet, he 
was so pleased. Debby helped him to put his 
eye in place again, and when it was nicely 
settled, the roast pig sidled up to Debby and 
said in a most engaging way: 


About Mother Goose 217 

“ Have a bite? ” 

“ Thank you, I believe I will,” said Debby. 
‘‘ It is surprising how hungry one always is 
here in Gooseland.” 

The little roast pig was most delicious to 
eat. Instead of one bite, Debby took a number. 
She nibbled a few of his stitches in order to 
taste the flavour of the dressing. Then she ate 
off his ear tips, and he seemed to rather like it. 

“ He doesn’t need a tail,” she thought, so 
she disposed of that very quickly. Then she 
began on one of his legs and took so many bites 
that the pig said hoarsely that he felt a little 
strange, As if I were done too much on one 
side, you know,” he went on. 

There was certainly something the matter 
with him. He had only three legs and very 
little ear left. 

“ I think I’ll be going now,” said Debby, 
looking at the mischief she had done. Good- 
bye, Mr. Roast Pig, and thank you ever so 
much.” 

“Not at all,” said the roast pig politely, as 
he trotted off unsteadily on his three legs, 


21 8 About Mother Goose 

looking back at Debby with his mild chestnut 
eyes. Before very long, Debby came to a nar- 
row path which stretched along between the 
trees. She hurried down it, turning every 
little while to see if the roast pig were coming 
back, but he was nowhere to be seen. At last 
she came to the end of the path, and there, just 
ahead, in a little cleared spot, stood a small 
gray cottage quite by itself in the woods. 

An old gray owl stood very stiffly on the 
doorstep outside, like an old soldier. He 
barely opened his eyes when Debby came up, 
and when she asked him timidly if he could 
tell her the way to go, he only said : 

“ Too-whit-to-whoo, who’re you, who’ re 
you? ” 

As Debby couldn’t really think who she 
was, she couldn’t answer his question, but the 
old owl shut his eyes again and did not seem 
to notice at all when Debby went past him and 
into the house. 

It was all very neat and tidy inside. There 
was a big rocking chair and a table and a tall 
clock in the room. Debby opened a pantry 


About Mother Goose 219 

door and then shut it very quickly, for the 
pantry shelves were piled high with gold 
eggs, and a fat goose was setting on a nest on 
one. Debby went upstairs and peeped into a 
clothespress where there were a great many 
aprons and high hats and pelisses hanging. 
There was a fourposter bed with a turkey-red 
counterpane spread over, and a crooked cane 
stood in the corner — but not a person was any- 
where about. 

Debby was just going to open a chest of 
drawers when she heard a noise out doors 
among the trees. Peeping out of the window, 
she saw a large basket, with a little red broom 
tied to the front like a horse, come skipping 
down the path. It stopped at the cottage 
door, a little old woman jumped out of the 
basket and said, as she looked in the house: 

“ Old Mother Goose had a house in the wood, 

Where an owl at the door for a sentinel stood. 

Yes, this must be the place.” 

Oh, dear,” said Debby. “ I must be in 
Mother Goose’s house.” 


220 About Mother Goose 

But there was, all at once, more commotion 
in the woods, and Debby peeped out of the 
window again, to see a large yellow gander fly 
down to the ground with a second old lady, in 
a long red cloak, on his back. The old lady 
jumped off, saying as she smoothed the gan- 
der’s feathers : 

“ Old Mother Goose when she wanted to wander, 
Would ride through the air on a very fine gander. 

“ Fine fellow ! Good old bird ! ” Then she, 
too, ran into the house. 

Debby went to the head of the stairs very 
softly and peered down. The two old ladies 
shook hands with each other, and the teacups 
began to rattle. Mother Goose opened the 
pantry door and brought out an apron full of 
gold eggs to show, saying: 

“ I have a son Jack, a plain-looking lad, 

He’s not very good, nor yet very bad. 

I sent him to market; a live goose he bought. 

‘ Here, Mother,’ he said, ‘ it will not go for naught.* ** 

Here the other old woman broke in with : 



A Large Yellow Gander Flew Down to the Ground 



About Mother Goose 


223 


“ Jack found one morning, as I have been told, 

His goose had laid him an egg of pure gold.” 

“Yes,” said Mother Goose — 

“ Jack ran straight to me the good news to tell. 

I called him a good boy and said it was well. 

“ But — ” old Mother Goose leaned over and 
whispered: 

“ Jack sold his gold eggs to a rogue of a Jtw, 

Who cheated him out of the half of his due.” 

“Do tell!” whispered back the other old 
woman, putting up her hands in dismay, “ and 
did he take the goose?” 

Mother Goose began to chuckle, and she 
shook her finger in the old woman’s face. 

“ The Jew got the goose which he vowed he would kill, 

Resolving at once his pockets to fill. 

Jack’s mother came in and caught the goose soon, 

Then mounting the gander, flew up to the moon.” 

“ Ha, ha,” said the other old woman, and 
Mother Goose opened the pantry door, 
counted the gold eggs, and polished them with 
her apron until they shone very brightly in- 


224 About Mother Goose 

deed. Just then the gander, who had been 
sitting outside with the owl, walked over the 
door sill and into the room where Mother 
Goose was. Debby crept away from the stairs 
again. The gander had a very long neck 
which he craned this way and that, peeping 
in all the corners, and Debby did not wish to 
be found hiding in Mother Goose’s house. 

“ She might think I came for Jack’s goose,” 
she said to herself. 

So she went over to the window to see if 
there were a friendly bough nearby that a 
little girl could climb down. And suddenly 
she heard tramp, tramp, thump, thud; it was 
Mother Goose’s gander coming up the stairs! 

“ Oh, dear,” said Debby, I didn’t know 
that a gander could go up a flight of stairs. 
I shouldn’t think that Mother Goose would 
let him.” 

She ran to the corner and picked up Mother 
Goose’s crooked cane to try and shoo him, but 
it was no use. There was the gander, long 
neck, yellow bill, green eyes and all, at the top 
of the stairs. He was so large that he seemed to 


About Mother Goose 225 

fill the little room, and Debby dropped the 
cane and jumped up on a chair. She heard 
Mother Goose calling in her sweetest tones at 
the foot of the stairs: 

“ Goosey, goosey, gander, 

Whither dost thou wander? ’’ 

The gander looked reproachfully at Debby, 
opened his bill and then hissed down the stairs 
to Mother Goose: 

“ Up stairs, and down stairs, 

And in my lady’s chamber. 

There I found a little girl 
A-jumping on the chairs! ” 

There was a long silence that seemed like an 
hour to Debby. The two old women whis- 
pered together, and then Mother Goose called 
out: 

“ Take her by her left leg, 

And throw her down the stairs.” 

“No, you won’t,” cried Debby, suddenly 
growing very brave ; “ for you won’t be able 
to catch me I ” 

She slipped by the gander, climbed up on 


226 About Mother Goose 

the window sill, felt of the little magic charm 
which hung around her neck, and jumped 
down to the ground. She fell on a bed of moss, 
and when she rubbed her chubby legs there 
was not a single bump. She was quite safe! 

But Mother Goose was peering out of the 
door to see the strange chick who had been up 
in her bedroom. Debby spied the little red 
broom which had become quite restless stand- 
ing still so long. She jumped in the old 
woman’s basket and clasped the reins tightly 
with both her hands. The red broom stood 
up straight, and then began to move. 


CHAPTER XIX 


ABOUT A JOURNEY IN THE AIR 

I T was very unusual, but Debby felt herself 
slowly rising — away from Mother Goose’s 
cottage, the owl and the gander, and up 
through the green leaves toward the blue sky. 
At first, she was a little bit afraid, but, after 
awhile, the motion seemed very pleasant, only 
she couldn’t help wondering where she was 
going next. The trees nodded their heads 
when she passed by as if she were an old 
friend. They waved their branches at her, 
and Debby nodded back at the trees. 

But the broom, now that it was really started 
again, cut up the queerest antics. It reared 
and plunged and backed and then rushed on 
wildly, nearly upsetting the basket and Debby 
too. Debby wound the reins about her hands 
more tightly and pulled very hard. At last 
the broom settled down and stopped, just as 
they reached the top of the tallest tree. 

227 


228 About a Journey in the Air 

‘‘ Good-day,” said Debby, breathlessly, to 
the tree, for she wanted to be quite polite. 

The old treetop did not say anything at first. 
When Debby looked closer she saw that the 
old treetop was very busy. Hung to every 
one of the brown boughs was a cradle, and in 
every one of the cradles was a little baby, and 
the old treetop was trying to put all the babies 
to sleep. Debby held the broom with a firm 
hand and listened while the treetop rocked the 
cradles gently to and fro and sang in a low 
voice like the breathing of soft winds : 


“ Rockaby baby on the tree top ; 

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock, 
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, 
Down will come baby, and cradle, and all. 

Hushaby, hushaby,” went on the kind old 
baby-tender until every baby in every cradle 
was fast asleep. Then the treetop looked up 
and saw the broom prancing away in the 
air, and she nodded to Debby and said pleas- 
antly: 

“ Good-day, old woman.” 


About a Journey in the Air 229 

“ Pm not an old woman,” thought Debby. 
‘‘ Well,” she went on, “ maybe I am. I don’t 
know.” 

Looking down in the bottom of the basket, 
she saw a white ruffled thing which appeared 
to be an enormous frilled cap. She put it on 
her head, though it nearly covered her face, 
it was so large, and she said: 

“ Good-morning! ” 

Is the new broom as skittish as ever?” 
asked the treetop. 

“ It’s all I can do to keep it from running 
away,” said Debby. 

Too bad,” said the treetop. “ I wish 
there was something I could do to help you, 
but the babies keep me so busy.” 

The broom was trying to start on again, but 
Debby pulled it in and asked: 

Please, Mrs. Treetop, if the bough should 
break, where would the babies fall? ” 

“ Why, asleep, of * course,” said the tree- 
top. 

Oh, I am so glad they don’t hurt them,” 
said Debby; “ I always wondered about it.” 


230 About a Journey in the Air 

Fine day for your business, isn’t it? ” said 
the treetop; “but don’t you find it tiresome 
sweeping down so many cobwebs?” 

“Yes, very,” said Debby, starting the red 
broom and calling back, “good-bye,” before 
the treetop should find out her mistake. 

“ Now, I know all about it,” she said, as the 
broom carried her swiftly through the sky. 
“ She thinks I am the old woman who came to 
visit Mother Goose. I have her broom and 
her cap. Oh, where am I going, and when 
will I come back? ” 

But there was very little time for wonder, as 
the broom went tearing on at a mad rate, now 
dashing to one side, then to the other, now 
down, and then straight up again, until it 
seemed to Debby as if she would bump right 
through the sky. Once they nearly ran into 
four long arms which were circling about in 
the air, as high as the tops of the trees. First, 
one arm would go up and then down, and 
another arm would take the place of the first, 
until it was very bewildering. 

Debby managed to stop long enough to hear 



Is THE New Broom as Skittish as Ever?” Asked 
THE Treetop 



About a Journey in the Air 233 

a creaking down below, and then some one 
singing: 

“ Blow, winds, blow. 

And go, mill, go. 

That the miller may grind his corn. 

And the baker may take it, 

And into rolls make it. 

And bring us some hot in the morn.” 

They’re only the windmill’s arms,” said 
Debby, as she sailed by, “but they certainly 
look very queer so high up.” 

She settled back in the basket and tied the 
cap strings under her chin. On and on they 
went, higher all the time. A flock of little 
sugar birds with red and blue wings and 
bright tinsel eyes flew down and settled on the 
basket, but they soon flew off again, chirping 
gaily. 

“ I don’t see any cobwebs,” said Debby, 
“ and I shouldn’t dare sweep them while I’m 
going at this rate.” 

The fleecy baby clouds were all at play in 
the sky, and Debby leaned over the edge of the 
basket to watch them. Sometimes, a very ven- 


234 About a Journey in the Air 

turesome little cloud would sail over toward 
the red broom and whisper something in 
Debby’s ear, but she never could understand 
what it said, and the little cloud would race 
off again through the sky with the others, 
or play hide and seek with the little sugar 
birds. 

“ ril watch for a chimney, or a roof,” said 
Debby, “ and just as soon as I see one, down 
ril go, and oh, very likely it will be King 
Cole’s Palace that I’ve come to, and I shall 
see my dear little Princess. Oh, I do want her 
so very much ! ” 

But there was not a chimney in sight, nor 
any roof, only clouds, clouds everywhere. 

After the broom had been galloping straight 
up for some time, it very suddenly careened to 
one side. Debby saw, quite near her, a gay 
coloured bridge standing so high in the midst 
of the clouds. It was made up of all the pretty 
colours you ever saw — red and blue and yel- 
low and green and purple, and it stretched way 
across the sky like a long curved bow, and it 
went so far that you could not see where it 


About a Journey in the Air 235 

stopped. As Debby came by, she could see a 
little black speck on the edge of the bridge, 
and when it began to move about, she saw that 
it was a black cat walking cautiously down. 
His tail was very long, and the hairs on his 
back stood out straight as if he were provoked 
about something. He was mewing, and his 
feet kept slipping out from under him. Debby 
heard him saying to himself: 

“ There was an old woman 
Who rode on a broom, 

With a high gee ho, gee humble, 

And she took her old cat 
Along for a groom. 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble.” 

“ He is talking very queerly, but I think he 
means me,” said Debby. I’d better not drive 
very near.” 

“We travelled along 
’Till we came to the sky. 

With a high gee ho, gee humble. 

But the journey so long. 

Made me very hungry, 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble.” 


236 About a Journey in the Air 

The cat began sniffing the air and his mouth 
looked watery. 

“ I said, ‘ I can find 
Nothing here to eat,* 

With a high gee ho, gee humble, 

* So let us go back again 
I entreat,’ 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble.” 

“ The old woman would not 
Go back so soon, 

With a high gee ho, gee humble. 

She said she would visit 
The man in the moon. 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble. 

“ Said I, ‘ ril go back 
Myself to the house,’ 

With a high gee ho, gee humble, 

‘ For there I can catch a good rat 
Or a mouse’. 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble. 

“ ‘ But,’ said the old woman, 

‘ Tom, how will you go? ’ 

With a high gee ho, gee humble, 

‘ You shan’t have my broom. 

Nor my basket, I trow.’ 

With a high gee ho, gee humble. 


About a Journey in the Air 237 

“ So I told the old woman 
I’d think of a plan, 

With a high gee ho, gee humble, 

I’ll slide down a rainbow 
And leave her alone. 

With a bimble, bamble, bumble.” 


At that, the old black cat started sliding. 
His feet spread out and he went like a little 
black streak, down the rainbow, and out of 
sight through the clouds. Debby tried to see 
where he landed, but she was too high up, 
now. 

“ I hope he will hit a very soft tree,” she 
said. “ It was too bad of the old woman to 
be so unkind to her cat, but I am glad he didn’t 
see me. He looked as if he knew how to 
scratch. And then,” she went on, ‘‘ there isn’t 
much room in this basket for anybody except 
me.” 

The sky was growing dark now, and the 
little clouds had stopped their playing. Even 
the frisky broom seemed quieter, and it am- 
bled along at a slower pace. Debby curled 


238 About a Journey in the Air 

down in the basket and laid her head on the 
floppy cap for a pillow. 

“To-morrow I’ll find the chimneys,” she 
said. 

One very bright star began shining through 
the dark quite close to the basket, and Debby 
called out sleepily: 

** Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 

How I wonder what you are. 

Up above the world so high. 

Like a diamond in the sky. 

“ When the blazing sun is set. 

When the grass with dew is wet, 

Then you show your little light, 

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. 

“ Then the traveller in the dark 
Thanks you for your tiny spark. 

How could he tell where to go. 

If you did not twinkle so? ” 

Then she steered the broom towards the 
star, but the star was always a little farther on, 
so Debby could not find out what it really was. 

“ Well, I don’t so very much care,” she said. 


About a Journey in the Air 239 

loosening the broom’s reins a little, and curling 
down again. “ This is a very nice place to 
sleep. I know now how the treetop’s babies 
feel when she rocks them to sleep. And 
there’s nobody at all to help the old woman in 
the shoe with the boots and the babies. I 
guess she’ll miss me. I wonder where the 
moon is ; I don’t belieVe they have any moon in 
Gooseland.” 

There was nobody else to talk to, and so 
Debby kept on saying things to herself until 
her eyes closed, the white cap frills flopped 
over her face, and she was asleep in the old 
cobweb woman’s basket above the treetops, in 
the place where the clouds and the stars stay. 


CHAPTER XX. 


ABOUT THE MAN IN THE MOON 

D EBBY’S nap was not very many inches 
long, though. There was suddenly a 
terrible jar, and the basket shook so violently 
that she nearly fell out. A very large fat hand 
had seized the rim, and the little red broom 
stood still. The reins fell out of Debby’s 
hands, and she was quite sure that she had 
come to the jumping-off place. She looked 
down over the edge of the basket. There was 
the sky above her, just as it had been before, 
and the clouds below. 

But when she looked behind, she saw the fat 
hand that had made all the trouble and above 
it an enormous yellow head with a jolly round 
face, two staring eyes and a very large mouth. 
Before Debby could say, “ oh,” even, the 
mouth opened wide, and the puffy-cheeked 
person said: 

“ Old woman! ” 


240 


The Man in the Moon 241 

Then, as Debby did not answer, he went on 
more and more loudly: 

“ Old woman, old woman, I say, old 
woman! ” 

Well, I’m certainly not deaf, if I do look 
so very old,” said Debby, covering her ears 
with her hands. What is it, sir? ” 

The queer old man, for he seemed to be a 
man, lowered his voice a little and said : 

My dear lady, excuse me, I beg of you. 
It’s all on account of my wife. I shout because 
she’s deaf as a post.” 

Then he went on in a most engaging tone 
and more softly: 

** There was an old woman tossed up in a basket, 

Tossed nearly as high as the moon. 

Where she was going, I couldn’t but ask it. 

For in her hand she carried a broom. 

‘ Old woman, old woman, old woman,’ quoth I, 

* Oh, whither, oh, whither, oh, whither, so high ? ’ ” 

I think I won’t tell him who I really 
am,” said Debby to herself. “ Perhaps he 
knows the old lady who owns this basket.” 


242 The Man in the Moon 

She leaned over and called down to the old 
man: 

“To sweep the cobwebs from the sky.” 

The old man looked so very funny clinging 
to the side of the basket. His fat yellow head 
bobbed this way and that, and he puffed back 
to Debby: 

“ May I go with thee? ” 

Debby measured the bottom of the basket 
with her fingers. 

“ I don’t see how there’s a particle of room,” 
she said, but she added as she saw him look- 
ing up anxiously at her over the rim : 

“ Oh, aye, by and by.” 

All right,” said the little man smiling until 
the ends of his mouth touched his ears. “ You 
don’t mind my hanging here awhile, until 
you’re ready to take me in, do you, old 
woman?” 

“ Not in the least,” said Debby, picking up 
the reins again. 

The broom began cantering on again, but 
much more slowly, for it had so much more to 


The Man in the Moon 243 

draw now, and Debby kept peering out to 
watch the queer, puffing, wheezing little per- 
son who was hanging on behind. 

“ I wonder who he can be,” she said. “ I 
don’t think I ever saw him before.” At last 
she took courage and leaned over the basket 
and called down : 

“ How did you happen to tumble up so far, 
sir?” 

The round yellow head bobbed into view, 
and the queer old man said: 

“You’re very much mistaken, Mrs. — Mrs. 
— excuse me, but I forget your name. I’m 
always about here somewhere, you see. For 
days and days I’ve watched you working on 
your webs. Don’t you remember how I 
threw you a bit of cheese yesterday? But I 
never expected to get in your basket, or see you 
so close, ma’am.” 

“ I’m very much obliged for the cheese, 
sir,” said Debby. “ I don’t just remember 
about it.” She puckered her forehead up into 
a tiny frown. “ I’m so very much puzzled, I 
can’t think who he is,” she said to herself. 


244 The Man in the Moon 

The old man went on talking: 

Don’t you find your business very trying, 
ma’am, hard on the neck and the arms, so 
much sweeping and cleaning about in the cor- 
ners?” 

I think I should if I tried it, sir,” she said. 
“ Oh, I do hope he won’t ask me any more 
questions,” she added. “ But please, sir, tell 
me how you managed to tumble up, for I’m 
very sure you must have come that way.” 

“Tumbled up?” said the queer old 
man, looking as if he thought Debby very 
stupid; “tumbled up — why, I tumbled down, 
ma’am.” 

Debby thought for a minute. “ Perhaps the 
sky roof was leaky,” she said, “ and you were 
trying to mend it and you tumbled through. 
Was that it, sir? ” she asked, but there was no 
answer. 

Just then she heard a gasping and choking 
sound in the region of the big yellow head. 
She stood up in the basket and leaned far out 
to see what had happened to her new friend. 
One hand was clutching wildly in the air, the 


The Man in the Moon 245 

jolly mouth was open, and the old man was 
gasping and sputtering and saying: 

‘‘Oh, dear, oh, dear; blow in my mouth, 
please ! ” There were tears in his eyes, and he 
kept repeating over and over: “ Blow in my 
mouth, ma’am, quick!” 

“ It must be the colic,” said Debby, her little 
head in its big cap bobbing about in the most 
excited way. “ Come in, sir, quick. Can you 
climb? I’ll try and help you.” 

She reached over and pulled as hard as she 
could at the yellow head. She tugged and 
tugged, for the old man was very heavy in- 
deed, but at last she had him over the edge of 
the basket. There was certainly not room 
enough for two people inside, but she bal- 
anced the old man on one side of the rim, 
while she sat herself up on the other, and she 
said: “ Oh, did you lose your legs, sir? You 
haven’t anything but a head and two arms! ” 
The old man went on crying and did not 
answer. He opened his mouth wide and said 
again: “ Blow in my mouth, ma’am; please 
blow in my mouth ! ” 


246 The Man in the Moon 

Debby stretched over carefully, for it was 
hard for her to keep her balance in the basket, 
and she blew as hard as she could in the large 
yellow mouth. The old man opened his eyes, 
stopped crying, shut his mouth and smiled 
again. 

Thank you, ma’am,” he said. “ That was 
a great relief. I shouldn’t have come down 
anyway, before I lit the lamps. Then I went 
to Norwich by the south, the longest way; I 
got very hungry, and the porridge was too 
cold, ma’am, it burned my mouth!” 

Debby looked at him. Then she began to 
laugh until she nearly fell overboard. The 
old man began laughing, too, as if it were all 
a huge joke, and Debby said : 

So that’s who you are, sir — 

The Man in the Moon 
Came down too soon, 

And inquired the way to Norwich. , 

He went by the South, 

And burned his mouth 
With eating cold pease porridge! 

But why were you coming down, sir? ” 



She Blew as Hard as She Could in the Large 
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The Man in the Moon 249 

“ I was taking home the cow, ma’am,” said 
the Man in the Moon. It happened just 
after I saw you yesterday. The cat began 
fiddling, and the dog began laughing so he 
couldn’t chase the rats. My wife was stirring 
cream cheese, but the bowl took to its heels, 
and the spoon after. And it was all because 
the cow jumped over. 

“ ’Twas hey, diddle, diddle. 

The cat and the fiddle. 

The cow jumped over the moon. 

The little dog laughed to see the sport. 

And the dish ran after the spoon. 

“ So I took the cow home,” he said. 

They rode along for a little ways, and then 
Debby said : 

“ Is the moon really made of green cheese, 
sir? I always wanted to be sure about it.” 

“ Green cheese and yellow laces. 

Up and down the market places,” 

said the Man in the Moon, 

“ Turn cheese, turn,” 


250 The Man in the Moon 

Debby did not think she really knew very 
much more about it than she did before, but 
the Man in the Moon did not seem to want to 
explain. He began peering about in the sky. 

“ Not one of the lamps is lit,” he said, 
sadly; “ and I polished them all this morning 
so they would be extra bright.” 

He put his hands to the ends of his mouth — 
they couldn’t nearly meet — and he called out: 

“Ahoy, ahoy, up there! ” 

No one answered through the sky, and he 
said to Debby: “She is deaf as a post, my wife 
is, and she must be on the other side, still.” 

“ Other side of what? ” asked Debby. 

The Man in the Moon did not answer 
Debby, but he said: 

“ It’s all because of the sage cheese. She 
should have looked out for it, but she let the 
other side get all mouldy so no one wants to 
buy it. She and Mrs. Venus just talk, talk, 
all day long about a transit they’re planning. 
But I said, ‘Now, my dear, you scrape off the 
other side while I go home with the cow,’ and 
I fancy she’s at it yet.” 


The Man in the Moon 251 

“Who buys your sage cheese?” asked 
Debby. 

“ Meteors and comets and satellites,” said 
the Man in the Moon glibly. “ They never can 
stop for long, and they like a quick lunch, so 
we have it ready for them.” 

Debby looked carefully about the sky. “ I 
hope we shan’t meet any of those things,” she 
said, “ they have such very long names,” 
Then she looked at the Man in the Moon and 
laughed again to herself, he was so very funny. 
He seemed to have forgotten that the moon 
was not lit. His eyes were closed, and his big 
yellow head was nodding up and down. 

“ I wonder how he’d look in my cap,” 
Debby said. She leaned over and slipped the 
ruffled white cap on his head and tied the 
strings under his fat chin. He never woke, 
and he looked so much funnier than before 
that Debby frightened a flock of the same lit- 
tle sugar birds with her laughter. 

“ Peep, peep, peep ! there goes the laugh- 
ing old woman again,” chirped the birds, as 
they fluttered by. 


252 The Man in the Moon 

Debby looked down below her. The tops 
of the trees were in sight, and some real roofs 
and chimneys. Debby seized the reins. 

“This will never do,” she said. “I must 
take the Man in the Moon home!” 

But the broom was very unruly. It insisted 
upon going down instead of up, and, just then, 
there was a loud hiss, and a quick whirr of 
wings, close by. It was old Mother Goose 
on her gander, with the real cobweb woman 
sitting on behind, and they were coming fast 
over the treetops! 

They were directly in front of Debby and 
there was no time to turn out. Crash — bang! 
— the red broom ran into the gander! The 
basket turned bottom side up. Then it righted 
itself again and mounted quickly toward the 
sky, with the Man in the Moon hanging to 
the rim, his cap strings flying out behind. 
Mother Goose and her gander followed 
quickly after to overtake it, but Debby just 
fell, and fell, and fell! 


CHAPTER XXI 


ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS COUNTRY AND HOW 
THE PRINCESS CAME 

S HE tried to stop at the chimneys as she 
passed by them, but she was going very 
fast, and she was not able. The Man in the 
Moon was only a speck in the sky, now, 
and Mother Goose, another speck, following 
after him. Down, down, Debby fell, past the 
tops of the trees and the roofs and the chim- 
neys — and, at last, she stopped, plump, on 
the peak of a very high mountain. It was a 
soft mountain, though, and not at all bumpy. 
Over and over Debby rolled, until she came 
finally to the bottom, and picked herself up 
and looked around. 

“ Fm not hurt,” she said, “ and that’s queer, 
for I fell a long ways.” 

She started to brush the dirt off her apron, 
and she found that she was not covered with 
dirt at all, but cake crumbs. She looked up 
at the mountain and the pretty country where 
253 


254 The Christmas Country 

she had dropped, and it was all very strange 
and peculiar. The mountain, from its white 
frosted-icing top to the citron valley beneath, 
where Debby had rolled, was a solid mass of 
rich black fruit-cake. Near by was a Jelly 
Cake Mound, and next to it a row of Ginger- 
bread Hills, with the sunshine lighting their 
pink, frosted summits. Behind was a Choco- 
late Layer Range, and all about were Sponge 
Patty Cliffs. Debby spied an opening as large 
as a door in the side of the Fruit Cake Moun- 
tain, so she went inside. 

It was all very pretty on the inside — a lit- 
tle grotto 'with lamps hanging from the top, 
so it was not at all dark. The light from the 
lamps flashed on the ragged sides of the grotto, 
v/hich were covered with mosses of chopped 
raisins and Zante currants and citron. It shone 
on the roof and long stallactites of crystal 
sugar which had filtered through and hard- 
ened drop by drop. It glistened in the corner, 
where a tiny fountain of rose coloured liquid 
bubbled over some candy rocks and then fell 
into a pool below full of candy fish. When 


The Christmas Country 255 

Debby leaned over the pool, the candy fish 
swam up toward her and offered her bites 
from their tails and fins and backs. 

The whole grotto was sweet with spicy fruit 
cake odours, and Debby was just biting a slice 
from one wall and nibbling at the little candy 
fish, which were all different flavours, when she 
heard, close by, tap, tap, tap, rap-a-tap-tap! 

She peered around, and suddenly the light 
from one of the lamps shone on a little elf who 
was busily working at one of the longest, 
thickest stallactites. He was very small in- 
deed, with a round little body; he was clad 
from top to toe in a brown suit, and he wore 
a peaked cap on his head. There were a 
number of stockings hanging from his arm by 
a string. He carried a tiny mallet and a chisel, 
and he was tap, tapping at the rock candy, and 
breaking off bits. When he had a number of 
pieces broken off, he sat down on a lump of 
fruit cake and began carving sugar toys from 
the rock candy. He was very deft at the carv- 
ing. A few blows of his hammer, and there 
was a toy lion, or a cat, or a bear; and as fast 


256 The Christmas Country 

as he made a toy he dropped it into one of the 
stockings on his arm. 

Debby watched him quietly for a while. 
The stockings were nearly full, and he seemed 
to be in great haste. He dropped two or three 
toys in the last stocking, and was just ^oing 
out of the grotto, when Debby called after 
him: 

‘‘ Oh, wait a minute, please.’’ 

The little elf jumped in a fright, the stock- 
ings scattered, and he looked all around to 
see who was speaking. At last he saw Debby, 
and he went up to her and peered in her face 
in a startled way. Then he took a little silver 
horn which hung from his waist, and he blew 
a loud blast. 

In a minute the grotto was full of other lit- 
tle elves just like the first one. They swarmed 
the sides, and sat about the pool, and hung 
from the roof, and crowded the doorway, until 
Debby could scarcely move. They, too, had 
been at work, for some were carrying piles of 
gingerbread squares, some had baskets of 
sugar cakes, some were just finishing chocolate 


The Christmas Country 257 

toys as they ran in, and they all had little 
stockings, which they had been filling. The 
little elves all looked at Debby, and they said 
to each other, shaking their heads sorrow- 
fully: 

“The Herr Claus, the Herr Claus; what 
will he say? ” 

Poor Debby was nearly ready to cry. 

“ Pm sure I didn’t mean to disturb you,” 
she said. “ I just tumbled down here, any- 
*way, and I won’t stay if you’d rather I 
wouldn’t. I’m only” — she thought a minute 
— “ a little earth-child, and I’m lost.” 

As Debby spoke, the little elves all clustered 
about her. They took off their little caps, 
and tossed them up, and bowed low to Debby, 
and shouted: 

“The Earth-Child, the Earth-Child!” 

The first little elf stepped up to Debby, and 
he said: 

“The King rides by to-day. The Herr 
Claus has loaned him one of the reindeer. The 
King is looking for the Earth-Child who was 
lost in Gooseland. Come, come, to the Herr 1 ” 


258 The Christmas Country 

cried Debby, running out of the 
grotto and after the elves, who were scamper- 
ing on ahead, “ I shall find the King, and he 
with take me to my dear little Princess 
again! ” 

They all crossed the citron valley. They 
hurried through a wood which was full of 
pine trees strung with popcorn festoons and all 
a-light with red and yellow candles. 

“Is this the Christmas country?” said 
Debby, breathlessly, and the little elves all 
nodded “ yes ” to her as they sped along. 

They crossed the Sponge Patty Cliffs and 
the Gingerbread Hills. They went past the 
Chocolate Layer Range, and before Debby 
had time to think how fast they had been 
running they came to a big building just be- 
yond. 

The chimneys were smoking, and a rattle 
and whirr and buzz and bang came from the 
inside, like any workshop. Debby heard a 
voice shouting: 

“Marjorie Daw must have six thousand 
legs at once.” 


The Christmas Country 259 

And some one answered, “ Send to the city 
for workmen and put them on legs at once.” 

Then the same voice, “ Pardon, Herr, but 
are the next lot of twins to have blue eyes, 
or brown? ” 

And the answer, “ Half and half, and be 
sure you turn out their toes.” 

The elves hurried Debby along to the door 
of the workshop, calling out in their high 
little voices: “ Herr Claus, Herr Claus, we 
have found the Earth-Child! ” 

At last he heard them, and the old Herr 
himself came to the door. 

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, 
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot ; 
A bundle of toys he had flung to his back. 

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. 

His eyes, how they twinkled! His dimples, how merry! 
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! 

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow. 

And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow. 

A stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth. 

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. 

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head 
Soon gave her to know she had nothing to dread.” 


26o The Christmas Country 

“Well, well,” cried Herr Claus, “come in. 
The King is sure to be by to-day.” 

He tilted a huge spy-glass which he carried 
at his side; and he looked off over the hills. 
Then he looked at Debby. 

“ And so you are the little girl who brought 
back the Princess, and then ran away from her 
again. Ha, ha, ha! ” He patted Debby’s rosy 
cheeks. “Wherever the King went, he missed 
you; for they all said you’d just gone on. 
Come in and see the toys, and give us your 
order for next Christmas while you’re wait- 
ing. Never an earth-child before had the 
chance to see my workshop.” 

Debby took Herr Claus’ hand, and they 
started through the rooms with one of the 
elves, going, too, to set aside the gifts she 
should choose. It was all very, very wonder- 
ful. 

Marjorie Daw was in charge of the dolls, 
and Debby saw her dressing and packing 
them — great dolls and small ones, young 
lady dolls in trains and curly-headed baby 
dolls, boy dolls and grandmother dolls, wax 


The Christmas Country 261 

dolls and bisque dolls, Parian marble dolls, 
with faces as pure as their garments, little 
china dolls no longer than Debby’s thumb, 
black dolls and brown dolls. 

From one room Debby heard: “Ten bush- 
els of lemon drops, fifty bushels of chocolate 
drops, five hundred pounds of cream bar, 
three crates of sugar plums.” 

In the next room were the Noah’s Arks, 
with the animals all bleating and barking and 
mooing and cackling and crowing, and the 
elves busily trying to sort the animals out and 
put them in the proper Ark. 

There was a great hissing and puffing from 
the engine-room, where the floor was all laid 
in tracks, and a quantity of toy trains and 
express teams and automobiles were steaming 
to and fro. Debby ordered and ordered gifts. 
The little elf piled up ten dolls and ten sets 
of furniture for them, and ten sets of dishes 
and ten trunks full of clothes; and a little 
cook stove, a box of paints, a sled, a big doll 
house — she would have gone on, and on, but, 
just then, there was a clatter of hoofs outside. 


262 The Christmas Country 

Then a sound of voices, and they were voices 
she had heard before. 

“She’s here, did you say? Ha, ha, ha! 
Whoa there, I say. Where is she? Ha, ha, 
ha!” 

And then a sweet little voice : 

“Debby, Debby, dear!” 

“ Here I am, oh, here I am,” Debby cried. 
She sped through the halls of Herr Claus’ 
workshop. Out of the door she ran. There, 
outside, was old King Cole laughing so hard 
that he could scarcely keep his seat on Herr 
Claus’ reindeer, and the little Princess Felice, 
who jumped down from behind the King, and 
began laughing too as soon as she saw Debby. 
She held out her arms wide, and Debby ran 
into them, crying, “ My dear little Princess, 
I meant to be gone only ten minutes — 
—but ” 

Herr Claus’ workshop faded away very 
suddenly before Debby’s eyes. In its place 
was an old stone wall with the afternoon sun 
shining on it. There was no reindeer, only the 


The Christmas Country 263 

bantam hen pecking nearby. King Cole was 
gone ; only the yellow kitten was there playing 
with the same leaf. It was not the little 
Princess’ hand which Debby was holding so 
tightly, only a withered dandelion stalk. 
Debby sat up and rubbed her eyes. There 
was Grandmother looking down at her. 

‘‘Deborah, child,” she said, and Grand- 
mother dear never said “Deborah” unless 
something unusual had happened, “come in. 
Why, you have been asleep here in the wet 
grass for half an hour!” 

So that was how it all happened. The 
beautiful dryads frowned and wondered, and 
then they said to each other, “The old Wood 
Witch did not know! ” and that was quite true. 
Not any one, not even the wise old Wood 
Witch, knew how to keep funny, dear old 
Gooseland quiet for very long. It laughed 
and sang just as it had laughed and sung for 
hundreds of years, and after a while the dry- 
ads began to listen. 

And when they heard how merry were the 


264 The Christmas Country 

sounds which came up from Gooseland they 
began to sway and swing up there among the 
green leaves in time to the laughing and the 
singing, and they began not to mind it in the 
least. The little brown hares listened, and 
they pricked their ears and frisked a bit 
faster. 

The little striped chipmunks listened and 
chattered louder. The little red foxes list- 
ened, and they whisked their tails and barked. 
The goblins and the pixies listened, and they 
came out and danced on their cobble door- 
sills. And the whole Enchanted Mountain 
made merry because Gooseland was so m_erry 
and happy. 

And why does Gooseland laugh and sing? 
Listen, and I will tell : Sometimes it laughs 
and sings and makes merry while you are 
in the deep, green wood. Sometimes you 
hear it when you sit in the nursery, and there 
are only the dolls and the picture books about. 
Sometimes you hear it when mother rocks 
you, and you wear your little white night- 
gown, and the fire burns red and low; but 


The Christmas Country 265 

always and ever, Gooseland is singing to you, 
dear Heart. 

As long as the dryads and the goblins and 
the pixies and the green wood live. King 
Cole will laugh. Dame Trot will sing, and 
Tom will pipe; Wee Willie Winkie will put 
you to bed, and Nancy Etticoat will light you 
up the stairs; the Old Woman in the Shoe 
will kiss you good-night; Mother Goose will 
ride through the sky on her gander, and the 
Man in the Moon will light his lamps for 
you, dear, and for every other little child. 



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«/\« 


Peter Newell’s Mother Goose 

Being the old rhymes with their veracious history by 
CAROLYN SIIERWIN BAILEY 

And Illustrations by Peter Newell. i2mo. $1.50. 

A little girl visits Gooseland and meets there the well-known 
children of Mother Goose, who say their old rhymes and some 
new ones, under adventuresome circumstances that v/ill delight 
children. Mr. Newell has most happily caught the spirit of 
the familiar figures, and given them an added interest. 


The Wizards of Ryetown 

By A. CONSTANCE SMEDLEY and L. A. TALBOT 
Profusely illustrated. i2mo. $1.50 

A fairy story with a touch of drollery and some clever 
nonsense verses. The plot is a clever variation of the good 
old story, with its little girl in fairyland, its lively and 
malicious witch, its lovely prince, and its happily ever after. 
The inhabitants of Ryetown and Barleyborough, the fairy 
cities of the story, are all original and captivating. The 
characters, the plot, the conversations, and the incidents are of 
the sort which children like best. 


Animal Snapshots, and How Made 

By SILAS M. LOTTRIDGE 

With about 85 illustrations. {Sept.) 

Extraordinary pictures from the author’s own photographs, 
accompanied by simple little papers on the Raccoon, Opossum, 
Muskrat, Fox, Photographing a Fox, White footed Mouse, 
Woodchuck, Skunk, Gray Squirrel, Red Squirrel, Flying 
Squirrel, Migration of Birds, Bluebird, Robin, Why the 
Robin’s Breast is Red, Chimney-swift, Bobolink, Woodcock, 
Crows, Old White-wing, Great Horned Owl, The Screech-owl, 
The “Hen-hawk” and How it was Photographed, and the 
Sparrow-hawk, with an Introduction on the camera and its 
accessories. A vtry simply written book suitable for young 
and old, in which the author shows an intimate knowledge 
of these familiar creatures of the woods and fields. 


Henry Holt and Company 

Publishei-s (ix ’05) New York 


The Boys of Bob’s Hill 

By CHARLES PIERCE BURTON 

Illustrated by George A. Williams. i2mo. $1.25. 

A lively story of a party of boys in a small New England 
town. Fun, sport, and exciting adventures are every-day 
matters. On holidays everything happening in their neigh- 
borhood leads up to hair-breadth escapes or jolly mishaps. 

“ A fiist-rate juvenile ... a real story for the live human boy — any 
boy will read it eagerly to the end . . . quite thrilling adventures.” — 
Chicago Record-Herald. 

“ l orn Sawyer would have been a worthy member of the Bob’s Hill 
crowd and shared their good times and thrilling adventures with 
uncommon relish. ... A jolly group of youngsters as nearly true to 
the real thing in boy nature as one can ever expect to find between 
covers.” — Christian Register, 

Nelson’s Yankee Boy 

By FREDERICK H. COSTELLO, author of “ On Fighting 
Decks in 1812.” 

Illustrated by W. H. Dunton. i2mo. $1.50. 

An American sailor boy is impressed by the English and 
is present at Trafalgar and Nelson’s death. The story con- 
cludes with a sea-fight in our own War of 1812. 

“ Most interesting . . . certain to be enjoyed by any intelligent 
boy.”— 

“A rattling good story.” — Philadelphia Press. 

“A boy of whom all ‘Yankees’ may be proud . . . is entertaining, 
oftentimes thrilling. Nor is there arvything improbable about it; the 
boy is honest and true, and the whole tone of the book is invigorating.” 
— Chicago Tribune. 


Pri nee Henry’s Sailor Boy 

By OTTO VON BRUNECK. Freely Translated and 
Adapted by Mary J. Safford 

With illustrations by George A. Williams. i2mo. $1.50. 

A tale of life in the German Navy to-day. Claus Erichsen 
goes to Japan, China, Africa, and elsewhere, and has a few 
troubles, but many more jolly adventures. 

“ Well written and interesting.” — Dial. 

“A complete and, we are sure, able picture of the life lived by a 
German sailor lad. . . . A brisk, interesting plot .” — Providence Jourttal. 

“ Excellently adapted to the taste of American youth ... a first- 
rate story. ... It has plenty of adventure .” — Philadelphia Press. 

“Told in a way to keep the young eyes steadily at work from the 
first page .” — Washington Star. 


H enry Holt and Company 

Publishers (ix, ’05) New York 


TWO STORIES FOR GIRLS 


Dandelion Cottage 

By I\Irs. Carrol Watson Rankin 
Illustrated by Mmes. SniRM and Finley, $1.50 

Four young girls secure the use of a tumble down cottage, 
on condition that they shall keep the grounds in order. They 
set up housekeeping under numerous disadvantages, and have 
many amusements and queer experiences. 

Outlook: “ A capital story. It is refreshing to come upon an author 
who can tell us about real little girls, with sensible, ordinary parents, 
girls who are_ neither phenomenal nor silly. Simple, wholesome, and 
withal most entertaining.” 

Dial : “ The humor of the talc is well borne out in the pictures.” 

Boston Herald : “ The story is one of cheerfulness and fun, and is to 
be warmly commended as one of the best of the season.” 

Boston Transcript : “ A pretty romance.” 

Philadelphia Press: “All told in a readable and entertaining style 
with lively dialogue.” 

Chicago Tribune : “ The story is a story for its own sake, brightly 
and cheerfully told.” 


Nut-Brown Joan 

By Marion Ames Taggart 

Author of" Miss Lochinvas'' etc. 

With decorations by Blanche Ostertag. $1.50 

Nut-Brown Joan is a charming heroine with plenty of in- 
dividuality, even though she may recall the “ Old fashioned 
Girl.” All the woes and all the fun attendant on the members 
of a large family are charmingly depicted. The heroine has 
the trials and triumphs of the fabled ugly duckling ; her boy 
and girl associates are real, and, with all their faults, they have 
a high sense of honor, and a loyalty and love for each other. 
Secret expeditions, rivalry in sports, mysterious trials and 
successful solutions all have their place. 

Henry Holt and Company 

Publishers (i, ’05) New York 


A remarkable humorous yarn 
That has been compared favorably with the work of 
Dickens, Stockton, flark Twain and Jacobs. 


The Belted Seas 

By ARTHUR COLTON 

A story of the wild voyages of the irrepressible Captain 
Buckingham in Southern seas. Not the least attractive of its 
features are the occasional snatches of verse. i2mo, $1.50 


New York Evening^ Poxt : “A whimsical Odyssey. . '. . What 

Jacobs has done for the British seaman, Colton has done for the Yankee 
sailor.” 

Cincinnati Enquirer : “ Never has the peculiar brand of humor which 
South America affords been more skilfully exploited than by Arthur Colton 
in The Belted Seas . . . . It is a joyous book, and he were a hardened 
reader indeed who would not chortle with satisfaction over Kid Saddler’s 
adventures at Portate .... Many of the stories are uproariously funny 
and recall Stockton at his best, yet with a human appeal, pathetic rather 
than comic — two of the very best qualities which vibrate in Mark Twain’s 
work.” 

Li/e : “Colton always has something to say . . . a sailor’s j'arn 

spun in an old tavern on Long Island to a company worthy of Dickens.” 

New York Tribune: “ A humorist, spontaneous and demure . . , 

droll all through.” 

New York Globe : “ The best thing about these stories is that they 
are told just as they happened — at least so it seems. It seems to be the 
old sea captain talking rather than a literary man writing, to produce 
which illusion is, of course, the perfection of literary art.” 

Public Opinion : “ Colton’s sailormen are flesh and blood.” 

Chicago Tribune : “Amazing tales of the sea. . . . The whole 

book is enjoyable.” 

Chicago Record-Herald : “ Humor pervades every paragraph. . . . 

There is no lack of quiet philosophy.” 


Henry Holt and Company 

Publishers Ov, ’05) New York 






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